POTEAU, Okla. (AP) - An Arkansas man has avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to murder in the death of a Fort Smith woman whose body was found in a pond in Oklahoma.
The Times Record reports (https://bit.ly/1q5wwem ) that Johnathen Thacker of Cedarville pleaded guilty Friday in LeFlore County District Court in Poteau to first-degree murder in the September 2010 death of 22-year-old Briana Jane Ault. Ault’s body was found in a pond in Pocola.
In exchange for the guilty plea prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty and to dismiss a sodomy charge against Thacker if he testifies truthfully against his brother - Elvis Thacker - who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and sodomy in Ault’s death.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Elvis Thacker.
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