Jury recommends life without parole for convicted killer of Arkansas woman, 22

POTEAU, Okla. — A Le Flore County jury is recommending life in prison for an Arkansas man convicted of killing an Arkansas woman in eastern Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the jury Tuesday recommended life without parole for 28-year-old Elvis Thacker for the 2010 death of 22-year-old Briana Ault. The jury also recommended Thacker serve 20 years for forcible sodomy.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty.

The jury Friday convicted Thacker of killing Ault by cutting her throat.

Thacker's attorneys blamed his brother, Johnathen Thacker, with killing Ault. Johnathen Thacker pleaded guilty in 2014 to first-degree murder as part of an agreement in which he testified that his brother cut Ault's throat with a razor after forcing her to perform sex acts, then trying unsuccessfully to drown her.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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