Arkansas killer gets life term

Brother testified against him in trial

POTEAU, Okla. -- A Crawford County man was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 20 years Wednesday for the 2010 slaying of a Fort Smith woman.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

LeFlore County, Okla., District Judge Jonathan Sullivan followed a jury's recommendation in sentencing Elvis Aaron Thacker, 28, who was convicted of first-degree murder and forcible oral sodomy on April 29. The judge ordered that the 20-year sentence on the sodomy charge run consecutively to the murder sentence.

The mother and sister of the victim, 22-year-old Briana Ault, sat in the courtroom with a group of friends. Ault's mother, Bethany Ault-Pyle, has attended nearly all of the court proceedings involving Thacker over the past five years, often in the company of other women whose daughters were murdered.

"Our hearts are broken but now we know they will never hurt anyone else," Ault-Pyle wrote in a statement May 18 for Thacker's pre-sentence investigation report. "We as a family wanted the death penalty. But a year ago we [sat] down and decided that we would be alright with life without parole. We just never wanted them to walk away."

Thacker was charged with his brother Johnathen Thacker, 27, in Ault's June 13, 2010, death at a secluded pond just over the state line in Pocola, Okla.

Johnathen Thacker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April 2014. As part of a plea agreement with the state, he testified against Elvis Thacker in the sentencing portion of Elvis Thacker's trial. He also avoided the death penalty under the plea and agreed to accept a sentence of life without parole.

Johnathen Thacker is scheduled to be sentenced before Sullivan at 8:30 a.m. Friday in LeFlore County District Court.

Elvis Thacker shuffled into court Wednesday shackled hand and foot and wearing a bright orange short-sleeved jail uniform that hung loosely on him and exposed extensive tattoos on both arms.

His attire differed from what he wore at his trial, when he wore slacks and button-down shirts with long sleeves to hide the tattoos. The well-groomed hair he sported at the trial was cut nearly to the scalp for Wednesday's sentencing.

Thacker remained silent throughout the 15-minute hearing and declined to speak when Sullivan asked him if he wanted to say anything before sentencing.

First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson, who prosecuted Thacker for the state, said after the hearing that both brothers will be transferred to Arkansas and will serve out their sentences there before being returned to Oklahoma to begin serving their life sentences.

She said the brothers had been turned over to Oklahoma's custody by a writ from Arkansas so they could be tried in Oklahoma but remained Arkansas' prisoners.

The two Thackers were sentenced to the Arkansas Department of Correction in August 2011 after pleading guilty in Sebastian County Circuit Court each to a charge of attempted capital murder in the wounding of Fort Smith police detective James Melson during their arrest on Sept. 15, 2010, and for kidnapping a woman on Sept. 3.

Elvis Thacker was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and Johnathen was sentenced to 25 years.

In Elvis Thacker's trial, which lasted three weeks and was heard by a jury of six women and six men, Oklahoma alleged that he wanted to rob Ault because he mistakenly believed she had won $1,600 at a casino.

According to testimony at the trial, he sent text messages to Ault asking for a ride to a location on Texas Road in Fort Smith. Ault, who was at a downtown Fort Smith bar with friends, agreed to help him and told a friend that she was going to give a ride to an ex-boyfriend and would be back in 20 minutes.

She picked up the brothers, who directed her to the pond where, according to testimony by Johnathen Thacker, his brother forced Ault to undress at knife point. Taking her to the pond, he said, Elvis Thacker forced Ault to have oral sex with both brothers then tried to drown her. When Ault fought back, he cut her throat and left her nude body floating in the pond.

Elvis Thacker's defense was that Johnathen posed as Elvis and sent the text messages to Ault, then killed her at the pond. Elvis Thacker's attorney Gretchen Mosley portrayed Johnathen Thacker as violent and aggressive, and said he wanted to rob Ault for money for a bus ticket so he could move to Indiana with his brother.

Mosley argued that Johnathen Thacker killed Ault and blamed Elvis Thacker, who could not walk because of a broken leg he had suffered in a car accident a month before the murder.

Metro on 06/30/2016

Upcoming Events