POTEAU, Okla. -- Jailhouse correspondence between an Arkansas man on trial for murder and his brother contained admissions that bolster the state of Oklahoma's theory that the brothers acted together in a 2010 killing.
"They know we were together that night," Elvis Aaron Thacker wrote in a Nov. 15, 2010, letter to his brother Johnathen about what police discovered about the Sept. 13, 2010, murder of Briana Ault at a secluded pond just across the Arkansas state line in Pocola, Okla.
The two were in jail in Fort Smith after their arrest on a warrant for separate rape and kidnapping charges, along with the attempted capital murder of a Fort Smith police detective helping to serve that warrant. They also were charged in Oklahoma with first-degree murder and forcible sodomy in Ault's death.
Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty against Elvis Thacker. Johnathen Thacker pleaded guilty in April 2014 to first-degree murder and testified that he believes he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Elvis Thacker's defense team has spent the past week trying to convince a LeFlore County, Okla., District Court jury of six women and six men that their client is innocent and that Johnathen Thacker acted alone in Ault's murder.
The defense called witnesses who testified that Johnathen Thacker was warped by his horrific upbringing and that he killed Ault and blamed his brother.
First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson contended in her cross-examination of psychologist Jolie Brams, a defense witness, that the context of the letters was not how innocent Elvis Thacker was, but how the brothers would coordinate their stories about the murder.
Johnathen Thacker testified earlier in the trial that it was his brother's idea to rob Ault, and that he had no idea that Elvis Thacker was going to kill Ault. He testified that he tried to prevent the murder.
Johnathen Thacker wrote to his brother asking him to confess to killing Ault and exonerate him. He blamed his brother for putting him in jail on the murder charge.
"'Do the right thing,'" attorneys read from Johnathen Thacker's letter. '"Confess and let me go free.'"
Nicholson also confronted Brams with a statement that Elvis Thacker made to nurses and police officers in the hospital where he was recovering from two gunshot wounds he suffered when he and his brother were arrested by Fort Smith police on Sept. 15, 2010.
"'I murdered her, yeah, but I'm no rapist,'" Nicholson read from the nurses' records on Elvis Thacker.
Witnesses have said that Johnathen Thacker was the more violent of the brothers and lied to put the blame on his brother.
Defense lawyers cited the letter that Johnathen Thacker wrote to his brother, calling it evidence that Johnathen Thacker wanted Elvis Thacker to take responsibility for Johnathen Thacker's actions and get him out of trouble, as they said he had been called on to do all his life.
Brams testified that by confessing to the murder that he now says Johnathen Thacker committed, Elvis Thacker was doing the only thing he could to gain his brother's acceptance and his mother's approval.
She said that because Elvis Thacker got so little love from his mother, he was desperate to maintain his connection with his brother.
She testified Monday that Elvis Thacker's mother, Marsha Gregory, threatened to never let him see his daughter again unless he protected his brother and took the blame for Ault's death.
Brams had testified that Johnathen Thacker was his mother's favorite, and Elvis Thacker was the family scapegoat.
In a separate case, the brothers were charged in Sebastian County Circuit Court with attempted capital murder. Elvis Thacker was accused of stabbing Fort Smith police Detective James Melson when police attempted to serve the warrant on the brothers for kidnapping and raping a woman 11 days before Ault's death.
In August 2011, the brothers pleaded guilty to attempted capital murder and kidnapping. Elvis Thacker, now 28, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Johnathen Thacker, now 27, was sentenced to 25 years.
Court resumes at 8:30 a.m. today.
State Desk on 04/27/2016