FORT SMITH — Fort Smith police detective James Melson disguised himself as an electric company employee so he could check whether two brothers suspected in the slaying of a 22-year-old woman were staying in a local apartment, according to an affidavit.
Melson was later stabbed and cut by Elvis Thacker, 22, who, with his brother, Johnathen Thacker, 21, was charged Monday with attempted capital murder in the attack on Melson, records state.
Johnathen Thacker was arraigned by video Wednesday in Sebastian County Circuit Court. Elvis Thacker was still in Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith on Wednesday after being shot twice by another detective trying to stop the attack on Melson, police said.
In the Sept. 15 attack, Melson was stabbed at least once in the back and cut in the neck, according to police reports. He was treated at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith and released that night.
The two brothers also were charged Monday in LeFlore County, Okla., District Court with first-degree murder in the Sept. 13 slaying of Briana Ault, whose nude body was found in a pond in Pocola, Okla., at the Arkansas state line.
According to an affidavit filed by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent, Elvis Thacker forced Ault to perform oral sex, then cut her throat after she fought his attempts to drown her in the pond. Johnathen Thacker helped his brother try to cover up the slaying, the affidavit says.
After investigators identified the Thackers as suspectsin Ault’s death, they traced the two to the Tulsa Square Apartments at 5042 S. 32nd St. in Fort Smith, according to reports filed to support the attempted-capital-murder charges.
As other off icers hid nearby, Melson reportedly disguised himself as an Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. employee and knocked on the door of Apartment 4, where investigators believed the men were staying.
Police reports listed the apartment residents as Floyd and Carol Jones and Ralph Adams.
When Melson knocked on the door about 10 p.m. Sept. 15, Floyd Jones answered, the reports state. Melson asked Jones if he could check the apartment because there was a report of smoke in the area.
Jones allowed Melson inside, where Melson spotted the Thackers. But, according to the reports, Jones told Melson to leave the apartment when Melson asked everyone inside to leave. Once Melson was outside, Jones locked the door and said he wouldn’t open it until Melson showed him proper identification, the reports state.
Melson began pounding on the door calling for Jones to open it. Jones went to a nearby window to look out, and found a person later identified as an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent trying to raise it. Jones closed and locked the window, the reports state.
Four or five Fort Smith police detectives and Oklahoma agents had gathered outsideand began pounding on the door and announcing themselves as police. According to the reports, Elvis Thacker went to the window and waved a knife at the officers and cursed at them.
Carol Jones, who was in a back room with the couple’s two dogs, told police afterward that Thacker told her he would stab any officers who tried to put him in jail again.
The officers kicked open the door and poured into the apartment. While other occupants in the apartment surrendered, Elvis Thacker struggled with Melson, stabbing at him with a knife, the reports state.
Officer Kyle Story said in a report that he drew his stun gun and fired it at Thacker. Seconds later detective Jeff Carter fired his gun twice at Thacker, striking him in the torso and buttocks, reports state.
Johnathen Thacker, who had been brandishing a knife, dropped it after his brother was shot, according to reports.
Reports state that Ralph Adams was in another room in the apartment playing solitaire and knew only that the Joneses had two guests that evening.
The Thackers also were arrested that night on a warrant charging them in the rape of a 40-year-old woman at knifepoint Sept. 3.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/23/2010