news1@ulyssesnews.com
Editor’s Note: The following article contains crime details of a graphic and sensitive nature. Discretion is advised.
GUYMON, Okla. — The State of Oklahoma filed a brief with the Texas County Court Clerk September 9, in support of consolidating the preliminary hearings for the defendants in the case of the murders of Hugoton residents Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. Lawyers for Tad Cullum, Tifany Adams, and Cora Twombly have requested the hearings be separate to avoid prejudice, confusion, and due process violations.
Lawyers for Cole Twombly filed a motion September 4 in support of consolidating the hearing.
The court on Sept. 18 heard the motions filed by each suspect to separate or join the hearings, and ultimately ordered the preliminary hearings to be combined.
Butler, 27, and Kelley, 39 - both Hugoton - went missing March 30 and were found deceased in rural Texas County April 14. Butler was traveling to an abandoned gas station in Eva, Okla., for a child custody exchange. 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; Tad Cullum, 43, and Tifany Adams, 54, were arrested in early April 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.
In the state’s brief for consolidation, District Attorney George H. Leach III laid out the facts of the case. Tad Cullum, Tiffany Adams, Cole Twombly, Cora Twombly and Paul Grice are accused of conspiring to murder Butler and Kelley, and ultimately committing the crime.
Twomblys were allegedly the lookouts on the day of the murders and confided in their 16-year-old daughter in hopes of receiving an alibi for the morning of the murders.
According to the affidavit, Grice is alleged to have stabbed and killed Butler and in the process sliced his hand, and accompanied the bodies of Butler and Kelley to the burial site near Texhoma. He threw his clothing, a stun device, and the knife used to kill Butler into the burial site. His clothing found at the burial site contained Butler’s DNA.
Cullum, in part, got permission from the landowners to dig a hole on the property, that allegedly unbeknown to the landowner, was to be used for the burial site. Cullum dug a hole with a skid steer the day before the murders. Cullum stabbed and killed Kelley and drove both bodies to the burial site, placing his clothing in the site and buried the bodies inside a freezer. His clothing found at the burial site contained his and Kelley’s DNA. The accessories to the knife found at the burial site were found in Cullum’s home.
According to the September 9 filing, Adams, in part, purchased the burner phones from Walmart which were used by the conspirators for communication. She purchased the stun devices at Standard Supply and one of the stun devices was found at the burial site. Adams allegedly purchased yellow straps from Standard Supply that were placed around the freezer containing the bodies of Butler and Kelley. She also purchased the pants Cullum placed at the burial site.
According to the September 9 filing, Adams “Hated and despised Butler and wanted her dead.”
The court believes it is able to determine, in a single preliminary hearing, what evidence is admissible against each defendant and separate evidence that is not admissible in making probable cause determinations. Additionally, the prosecution said that five separate preliminary hearings and five separate trials would require the 16-year-old daughter of Cora Twombly, a witness in the case, to travel to Oklahoma and testify 10 different times, calling such a result “Unconscionable.”
According to the filing, “The state will put no evidence at a preliminary hearing that will be favorable towards any particular defendant. The defendants have no antagonistic positions towards each other. They are all in it together unable to implicate another without implicating oneself. The defendants either entered into a planned conspiracy to murder two women that culminated in the murders of two women, or they did not. The State will present independent and separate evidence, as set forth in the facts above, that will support and require the Court to find that there is probable cause to believe that each Defendant committed the crimes contained in his/her respective information.”
On Sept. 18, the Texas County judge ordered the hearings to continue to be the third Wednesday of the month with the next preliminary hearing set for Dec. 18 in Guymon. The attorney for Paul Grice filed a motion to waive his right to a speedy trial, which was granted.
Grice was moved from Texas County to Woodward County on Sept. 18.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here