By ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Enterprise Editor & BILL BRAUN & CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writers on Jul 16, 2013, at 2:23 AM Updated on 7/16/13 at 7:40 AM
Two relatives of a suspect in a quadruple homicide testified that he admitted killing four women during a robbery in January.
Witnesses during Monday's preliminary hearing for brothers James and Cedric Poore were often emotional. The hearing was recessed briefly while one witness, Laura Moore, composed herself.
Moore, a neighbor who discovered the slain victims, broke down after prosecutors showed her a photo of the bloody crime scene in an apartment at Fairmont Terrace, near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue.
"How could somebody do that to those women?" Moore wailed after seeing the photo.
Friends and relatives of the four women also wept during some of the testimony. Some attending the hearing wore buttons with photos of the women, while others wore ribbons in their memory.
James Poore, 32, and Cedric Poore, 39, are each charged in Tulsa County District Court with four counts of first-degree murder in the Jan. 7 deaths of Julie Jackson, 55; Misty Nunley, 33; Rebeika Powell, 23; and Kayetie Powell Melchor, 23, at the Fairmont Terrace subsidized housing complex.
Moore sobbed loudly as she described walking into the bedroom's doorway and seeing Rebeika Powell's lifeless body, hands bound, on the floor and blood surrounding her head. She then saw two more women's bodies on a bed, hands also bound, and the feet of a fourth body visible from behind the bed.
Moore said she fled the apartment and that her boyfriend returned to check the victims for a pulse, but they were dead. Shortly before the killings, she had called Rebeika, whom she could hear talking to someone in the background, she said.
"All she was saying is, 'I'm not afraid of nobody,' " Moore testified.
Casey Poore, Cedric Poore's wife, testified about events before and after the killings. Casey and Cedric Poore were married in October 2012 and lived in a home on North Boston Avenue with other relatives.
On the morning of the killings, her husband was home playing with the couple's dog in the back yard, Casey Poore said. She said she went to sleep and doesn't know whether he left the house later that morning.
Police were dispatched to the apartment at 12:26 p.m., and Moore said she had talked to Powell on the phone at 12:03 p.m.
Casey Poore said her husband was arrested Jan. 14 on a misdemeanor parole violation after a visit to his parole officer. She said she then went to stay with James Poore and his girlfriend, Jamila Jones, at Fairmont Terrace.
Jones' apartment, at 5826 S. Owasso Ave., was listed by James Poore as his residence when he was arrested Feb. 6, records show. Fairmont Terrace later evicted Jones from the apartment, which was above the apartment where the women were fatally shot, records show.
Casey Poore testified that she and James Poore went to visit her husband at the Tulsa Jail and that on the way, he talked to her about the killings.
"He told me he was having sex with the blonde twin, Kayetie. She (Kayetie) told him that her sister always had drugs and money at her apartment and that he went to rob that apartment and his name was said by two different people" during the robbery, Casey Poore said, wiping away tears.
A police affidavit says James Poore told witnesses that he shot Rebeika Powell because she could identify him.
Casey Poore said James Poore told her that "he tied them up and shot them in the head." He told her that he burned a shirt he was wearing because it had evidence from the shooting on it, Casey Poore testified.
She said her brother-in-law said he told her about the killings "so I would know what he was capable of."
Under questioning by defense attorneys about her differing versions of the event, Casey Poore said she initially was afraid to tell police about the conversation.
She acknowledged that she had been on probation at one time herself and had used a variety of illegal drugs.
Cedric Poore's daughter, Quashaun Poore, testified that her Uncle James told her the day after the shootings that he had shot the women.
Quashaun Poore, 19, said she sometimes visited Jones' apartment to have her hair done. After the homicides, she told her uncle she was scared to return to have her hair finished before she left for college.
James Poore told her it was OK to return to Fairmont Terrace, she testified.
He told her, "Don't worry about that," because he did the shootings and no one suspected him, Quashaun Poore testified.
Her uncle told her that "they were doing what they normally do and something went wrong," she testified.
Her testimony was part of a contentious day in court, with defense attorneys for both Cedric and James Poore objecting frequently.
The bailiff had to quiet Eric Poore, the defendants' brother, during a small outburst at one point during Quashaun Poore's testimony.
According to the two brothers' arrest reports, the men told witnesses they were "going to pull a lick" - a robbery - at the apartment. Cedric Poore was armed with a .40-caliber pistol, according to police.
Casey and Quashaun Poore both testified about a .40-caliber pistol they and other relatives fired into the air on New Year's Eve, prior to the Jan. 7 killings.
Prior to the start of testimony at Monday's preliminary hearing, Tulsa County Special Judge Stephen Clark resolved a motion by defense attorney John Echols, representing Cedric Poore, that sought to have the Tulsa County Public Defender's Office disqualified from representing witnesses in the case. Clark denied that request.
That motion maintained that the Public Defender's Office has conflicts and "in this single case" at one time or another has represented at least two cooperating witnesses, two material witnesses, two suspects and one defendant.
First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond has asserted that an evidentiary hearing on the matter, requested by Echols, would have touched upon privileged attorney-client communications and further delayed the preliminary hearing.
That motion was directed at three potential witnesses for the prosecution, and "it just happens" that the anticipated testimony of those witnesses incriminates both defendants, according to Drummond.
District Attorney Tim Harris has not announced whether his office will seek the death penalty in the case. Tulsa County prosecutors typically make that decision after the preliminary hearing.
The hearing resumes Tuesday.
Ziva Branstetter 918-581-8306
ziva.branstetter@tulsaworld.com
Bill Braun 918-581-8455
bill.braun@tulsaworld.com
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Poore relatives testify
