Man charged with killing Weleetka girls bound over for trial in girlfriend's death
BY JERRY WOFFORD World Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
5/22/12 at 5:08 PM
See complete coverage of the Weleetka case.
OKEMAH -- A man charged in the slayings of two girls in Weleetka was bound over for trial on Tuesday on another charge of first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend.
Kevin Sweat, is charged in the death of Ashley Taylor, 23. A judge ordered him to stand trial following a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
Sweat was charged Aug. 12 with first-degree murder in the death of Taylor. He was charged four months later with the deaths of two girls found along a rural road near Weleetka in 2008, Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, and Skyla Whitaker, 11. A hearing related to the deaths of Whitaker and Paschal-Placker has not been scheduled.
The mother of Taylor testified Tuesday her family confronted Sweat when he returned from eloping without her.
"I was screaming and hollering, 'You better not have done anything to my daughter,'" said Patricia Taylor, the mother of Ashley Taylor, who disappeared last summer.
Taylor testified Tuesday morning as well as Curtis Patrick Sweat, Kevin Sweat's father.
Patricia Taylor testified that her daughter and Kevin Sweat dated for four years and were engaged for about two. She said Kevin Sweat had always been kind and loving to her daughter.
"He was always hugging on her and calling her sweetie," Patricia Taylor said. "I would think he was really in love with her, not just acting."
The last time Patricia Taylor saw her daughter was on July 15, she testified. They were to leave to get married in Louisiana and be back July 29. Patricia Taylor said she was concerned when she didn't call after the wedding and more concerned when she didn't call for her brother's birthday.
"I started getting a strange feeling about then," Patricia Taylor said.
Kevin Sweat returned in late July without Ashley Taylor, and her family then filed a missing persons report with the Okmulgee Police Department, Patricia Taylor said.
Curtis Sweat said he did not know his son was engaged to Ashley Taylor and didn't speak to his son about her very often.
He said that on July 17, he found the remains of a fire on his property near Weleetka, and a cup with Kevin Sweat's initials in it. He said he called his son to "chew him out for starting a fire because there was a burn ban." He told Curtis Sweat he had been burning trash in his car.
He said that Kevin Sweat did not mention Ashley Taylor during the conversation.
Curtis Sweat later found a small ring with a diamond in the fire, he said.
"I confronted Kevin about it and he said it must have been in some of the stuff he burned" from his car, Curtis Sweat said.
Associated Images:
Kevin Sweat (left) is escorted by a sheriff into the Okfuskee County Courthouse, in Okemah, before his preliminary hearing, on Tuesday. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
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