Cullum Motion To Recuse Judge Is Denied; defendant appeals ruling

By Shawn Yorks

news1@ulyssesnews.com

GUYMON, Okla.— One of the defendants charged in the murders of Hugoton moms Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley requested the judge in the case be recused because of his prior dealings with one of the other defendants.

Tad Cullum, one of three men and two women charged in the brutal 2024 murders of Butler and Kelley, requested District Judge Jon Parsley be recused because he heard a case involving suspect Tifany Adams in 2010 in Cimarron County. The court reviewed Oklahoma Statutes, Oklahoma Code of Judicial Conduct, judicial Ethics Advisory Opinions and heard Cullum’s attorney’s arguments, and denied the motion to recuse.

According to Supreme Court case Pierce v. Pierce, 2001 OK 97, a party must point to some fact to overcome that a judge is biased.

The 2010 case involving Adams was a dissolution case against Jason Rickman, and the parties reconciled before an evidentiary hearing. The case did not involve Cullum and was dismissed January 5, 2011.

According to court documents, “Overall, no actual bias or even the appearance of any impropriety has been shown by (Cullum).”

As previously reported, Hugoton residents Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, went missing on March 30, 2024, and were found deceased in rural Texas County, Okla., April 14, 2024. Butler was traveling to an abandoned gas station in Eva, Okla., for a child custody exchange and Kelley was a court-appointed liaison for Butler to oversee the exchange. The vehicle they were traveling in was found abandoned on Oklahoma Highway 95 just south of the Kansas state line near Elkhart.

Cole Twombly, 50; Cora Twombly, 44; Cullum, 43, and Tifany Adams, 54, were arrested in early April 2024 and charged with two counts of Kidnapping, two counts of First-Degree Murder – deliberate intent - and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree. A fifth suspect, Paul Grice, 31, of Keyes, Okla., was later arrested on two counts of First-Degree Murder – deliberate intent - two counts of Kidnapping, and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree.

The five are accused of killing the two women, putting them in a freezer and burying the freezer in a field near Texhoma, Okla.

All of the defendants are set for a hearing May 14 at the Texas County courthouse in Guymon.