OKEMAH - A man charged in the brutal slayings of two young Weleetka girls in 2008 entered a plea of not guilty Thursday in Okfuskee County court.
Kevin Joe Sweat, 27, was arraigned on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of shooting with intent to kill in the deaths of Skyla Whitaker, 11, and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13.
Sweat's attorneys opted to enter the plea on his behalf and he stood silent before the court.
Both girls were shot multiple times and left to die on a rural Okfuskee County road in June 2008. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Sweat has also been ordered to stand trial in June on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the 2011 death of his former fiancee, Ashley Taylor. For most of Thursday's proceedings, Sweat sat in a bulletproof vest in the courtroom, staring down and trying to avoid eye contact with the victims' families.
District Judge Lawrence Parish considered several pre-trial motions for that trial at Thursday's hearing and is expected to rule in upcoming weeks on whether to grant a change of venue requested by Sweat's attorneys.
Defense attorney Peter Astor said the two murder trials his client faces are "intertwined," and intense media coverage of the Weleetka girls' murders had unfairly prejudiced the potential jury pool in Okfuskee County.
Potential alternate venues discussed Thursday included Creek, Payne, Pittsburg, Tulsa and Rogers counties.
Although Taylor's killing and the girls' slayings are scheduled as separate trials, "in a way, they're going to be tied together" because of evidence prosecutors plan to use that potentially links both killings, Astor said.
At a preliminary hearing in January, a judge ruled to allow into evidence a recorded OSBI interview with Sweat implicating himself in the girls' deaths. On the recording, he tells an investigator that he shot the girls because he thought they were "monsters" coming after him. He also suggested that he might have been possessed or having blackouts.
Sweat told the investigator that while he was in the area to visit family on June 8, 2008, he pulled over to the side of the road to "take a leak," saw the girls coming at him, panicked and shot them with a .40-caliber Glock and a .22.
The interrogation video took place in September 2011, while Sweat was jailed in connection with the slaying of his former girlfriend, Ashley Taylor, who had disappeared in July of that year. Investigators have yet to find either gun that was used in the girls' killings.
Ashley Taylor's father, Michael Taylor, told the media Thursday that he didn't have a problem with a venue change for the trial of his daughter's accused killer.
"I'll drive wherever I have to," he said.
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Man pleads not guilty in deaths
