Cedric Poore (right) and his brother James Poore (left) are escorted by Tulsa County deputies into courtroom No. 706 at the Tulsa County Courthouse, for their preliminary hearing, on Tuesday. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
A second witness placed two brothers at the scene of an apartment where a robbery was allegedly planned that resulted in the deaths of four women.
The witness, Shallee Owens, testified that both James and Cedric Poore were present in the apartment where James Poore lived on Jan. 7, before the women were killed. Owens said the brothers had a brief conversation in a back bedroom before leaving.
Owens said James Poore and his girlfriend, Jamila Jones, discussed a robbery before the brothers left the apartment, where Jones also lived. That differed from Jones' testimony that James and Cedric Poore had discussed a robbery.
The testimony came Tuesday during the fifth day of testimony in a preliminary hearing in Tulsa County District Court.
The hearing for James Poore, 32, and Cedric Poore, 39, was continued from July, when four prosecution witnesses testified during three days.
The Poore brothers are each charged with four counts of first-degree murder. The homicides occurred Jan. 7 in an apartment at the complex near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.
Killed were Julie Jackson, 55; Misty Nunley, 33; Rebeika Powell, 23; and Kayetie Powell Melchor, 23. Rebeika and Kayetie Powell, who were sisters, lived in the apartment with Nunley, and Jackson had stopped by to check on them that day.
In other testimony today, defense attorneys continued to point out inconsistencies in statements by Jones about the slayings.
Jones testified Monday that James Poore said he shot one woman "and bro finished the other three" during the robbery at Fairmont Terrace in January. She also testified she had seen Cedric Poore with a gun tucked in his waist band.
Defense attorney John Echols asked her why she failed to mention a gun in earlier statements to police and why others present in the apartment that day have not said they saw a gun. Jones said she didn't know.
Echols also asked Jones whether she had used marijuana in the past 30 days, to which Jones replied yes. After a recess with her public defender, Jones pleaded the Fifth Amendment to protect against self-incrimination on additional questions about her drug use.
Jones, 21, testified Monday that James Poore and his brother returned to her apartment in Fairmont Terrace after shooting the four women and divided up drugs, money and jewelry stolen during the robbery.
James Poore had lived with Jones in her apartment for several months before the slayings, she said. Cedric Poore took the jewelry, James Poore kept the drugs and they split the cash, giving her $15 of the money, she testified.
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Legal
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Hilliard Andrew Fulgham is accused of killing Linda Wright, 45, and Dorothy Lindley, 60, in 2006.
