POTEAU, Okla. -- Elvis Aaron Thacker falsely confessed to murdering Briana Ault, believing he would bring closure to her family and shield his brother who he now says committed the killing, a psychologist said.
Jolie Brams testified Monday in LeFlore County, Okla., District Court that Thacker confessed because he believed he was about to die as he lay on the floor of a Fort Smith apartment after being shot twice when police arrested him and his brother Johnathen on Sept. 15, 2010.
Elvis Thacker told Brams that he thought he had wasted his life, but at least his young daughter and other family members would get money from his life insurance policy, Brams said.
Thacker, 27, thought that confessing to cutting the throat of Ault, 22, at a secluded pond just over the Arkansas state line in Oklahoma on Sept. 13, 2010, would comfort Ault's family, Brams said.
Thacker also told Brams that saving Johnathen Thacker from blame in the murder would please his mother, Marsha Gregory, who Brams testified never loved Elvis Thacker and made him the family scapegoat.
Elvis Thacker repeated his confession to investigators after his mother visited him in the hospital. Brams testified that Thacker's mother had warned him that he would never see his daughter again unless he protected Johnathen Thacker, her favorite son, by taking the blame for Ault's murder.
As Brams testified, Elvis Thacker laid his head on the defense table, burying his face in the crook of his arm, and wept.
"That was the most narcissistic thing this woman has ever done to that boy," she said.
The defense witness testified in the start of the third week of Thacker's trial on charges of first-degree murder and forcible sodomy, for which Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty.
Thacker's brother, Johnathen, 27, testified in the first week of testimony that Elvis Thacker lured Ault to the pond on the pretext of giving the brothers a ride in return for $50 and a tank of gas. Johnathen Thacker said he unwittingly accompanied his brother and tried to dissuade him from killing Ault.
Johnathen Thacker testified that his brother planned to rob Ault of $1,600 he mistakenly believed she won at a casino. He said Elvis Thacker cut Ault, forced her to perform oral sex on both brothers, tried to drown her and then cut her throat and left her nude body floating in the pond where a fisherman found it later that day.
Elvis Thacker's defense team with the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System contends that Johnathen Thacker is the actual killer.
They claim Johnathen Thacker intended to rob Ault for money so he could move to Indiana with his brother. Elvis Thacker, they said, was planning to go live with a girlfriend but didn't have enough money for his brother's travel expenses.
The brothers shared Elvis Thacker's cellphone, which was used to send the text messages to Ault asking for the ride. Elvis Thacker also was laid up with a broken leg and torn ligament in his knee, his attorneys say.
Elvis Thacker confessed to killing Ault because all his life he was blamed for Johnathen's actions, Brams said, adding that he had long ago acquiesced to that role.
In the "toxic" Thacker home, Johnathen Thacker was the favored child and Elvis Thacker was the scapegoat, Elvis Thacker's attorneys said. The Thackers' sisters, Ellen Gregory and Sandra Whitlock, testified Monday that their mother would blame Elvis Thacker for things Johnathen Thacker did even when he wasn't present.
Johnathen took advantage of his favored position, they said. The sisters said he would use his size to intimidate people, hurt people and cause damage and pain to get his way. They testified that he had a preoccupation with violence and sex and that they were uncomfortable around him.
He also mimicked his mother by putting the blame for his actions on others, especially Elvis Thacker, Brams said.
Brams and his sisters described Elvis Thacker as a mild-mannered and loving man who loved animals. Ellen Gregory said Elvis Thacker mellowed with age, but Johnathen Thacker became more violent and aggressive.
The three witnesses also testified about the children's upbringing.
The two sisters and three brothers, who included William, routinely were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse, they said. Marsha Gregory and one of her boyfriends, Wayne Blevins, dealt with the boys' Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder by locking them in their room all day. Johnathen would smear feces on the walls and the boys would urinate in the closet, the sisters testified.
They were always hungry because the refrigerator was padlocked and their mother would not provide them with food, they said.
Brams called the Thackers the sickest, most dysfunctional family she has seen.
Testimony continues at 8:30 a.m. today.
State Desk on 04/26/2016