Police: Two arrested in Fairmont Terrace killings

BY Staff Reports
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
2/07/13 at 3:08 AM

Continuing coverage: Read more on Fairmont Terrace and the quadruple homicide here.

Tulsa police said they arrested two brothers in the killings of four women at the Fairmont Terrace apartment complex last month.

Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan identified the two men as James Poore, 32, and Cedric Poore, 39.

"I cannot discuss the motive," Jordan said.

However, he said the homicides were not gang-related.

Misty Nunley, 33; Julie Jackson, 55; Rebeika Powell, 23; and Kayetie Powell Melchor, 23, were all found shot to death in an apartment at the complex on Jan. 7.

Jackson's mother, Lyne West, said Wednesday that she was "thankful and relieved" that police were able to apprehend the men who are thought to be responsible for the death of her only daughter.

"I now know that they can't hurt anyone else again," West said. Justice is now done. I loved her dearly, and I miss her, too."

Cheryl Nunley told the Tulsa World moments after watching the news conference that the family had been waiting on some good news in the murder case on what would have been Misty Nunley's 34th birthday.

"Today was my daughter's birthday, and this really helps," Cheryl Nunley said. "There is a lot more that we need to know, but we are very confident in the police."

Charon Powell said she wasn't aware that her daughters had any connection with the suspects.

"I know this (arrest) doesn't bring my daughters back, but I'm pleased they have been caught," she said.

Jordan said police would ask the District Attorney's Office to charge each man with four counts of first-degree murder.

Jordan said James Poore was arrested Wednesday morning and that Cedric Poore was already in jail on other complaints.

According to jail records, Cedric Poore was being held on a request from the Department of Corrections and for complaints of speeding, no proof of insurance and an expired vehicle tag.

Another man, Freddie Allen Hayes, a current Tulsa Jail inmate, "at a minimum" witnessed the homicides and could be a "person of interest" in the slayings, prosecutors said last month.

"I’m not going to talk about any previous interviews or arrests in the case," Jordan said. "It is still ongoing. We’re still looking to see possible involvement of other persons."

Jordan said “it’s always a possibility” other suspects could be arrested. “I don’t really expect it, but it could certainly happen.”

Jordan repeatedly said he could not discuss motive.

"These arrests came as a results of excessive interviews and re-interviews of persons surrounding this crime," he said. "We will be presenting charges … tomorrow or the very near future.

“What we need for the public to know is that we have a very good District Attorney’s Office, and if I maintain some level of confidentiality about this case, I have a chance of making a good prosecution and conviction,” Jordan said.

Angela McGinnis, property manager of Fairmont Terrace, told the Tulsa World that the two men were not residents of the complex.

"The two arrests that were made, they were guests. Our policy is you can only have a guest for 14 days and you have to fill out a guest form. We make copies of IDs and do background checks. That was not done in this case, and we were not aware that they were here."

Fairmont Terrace conducts background checks on all residents and does not allow residents with felony records to lease apartments, she said.

The two brothers are convicted felons, having both served prison terms for robbery with a firearm in unrelated crimes.

Cedric Dwayne Poore received a 35-year prison term in 1995 in Tulsa County for armed robbery with a firearm.

Poore received a prison term for his part in a 1995 holdup at a strip club in the 8200 block of East Admiral Place, according to Tulsa World news reports.

Police said two masked bandits with semiautomatic pistols forced employees to the floor and tied them with duct tape before taking $1,000, reports show. A woman who worked at the club drove the get-away vehicle and received probation for her part in the crime, reports indicate. Cedric Poore, who goes by an alias of “Insane Poore,” was released from prison March 14, 2011.

He was scheduled to be on probation until 2017. In 1993, Cedric Poore also served two concurrent four-year probation terms in Oklahoma that stemmed from auto theft and drug distribution convictions in Illinois, records show.

More recently, Cedric Poore was charged in May with obstructing an officer on April 26, 2012.

In the arrest report, police quoted Cedric Poore as threatening a woman and her nephew at an east Tulsa residence, at one point saying, “Just wait, my people will be here to take care of all of you all.”

Cedric Poore pled guilty to the obstructing charge on Oct. 8 and received a one-year suspended sentence.

James Poore received a 12-year prison term in 2000 in Tulsa County for armed robbery with a firearm. He was released from prison Dec. 16, 2011, according to a Department of Corrections spokesman. Records show that he was scheduled to be on probation until 2016.

Police were called to apartment complex, at 1100 E. 60th St., about 12:35 p.m. on Jan. 7 after the four women were found dead in the apartment by someone who had gone to check on them.

Powell’s son, who was 3 at the time, was found in the apartment unharmed.

Each of the women died from at least one gunshot wound to the head, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Detectives said that since the killings, they have spent days chasing down leads and interviewing individuals about what could have happened in the apartment.

The homicides turned the city’s attention to the issues facing the area around 61st Street and Peoria Avenue, including poverty and high crime rates.

It prompted city leaders to propose regulations for out-of-state apartment owners and to work on community involvement in the area and across the city.

“The Tulsa Police Department is known for their quick efforts of finding perpetrators and they indeed lived up to their stellar reputation for this case," Mayor Dewey Bartlett said in a statement.

"I have the utmost confidence in Chief Chuck Jordan and the Tulsa Police Department and I knew they would bring in those involved with this hideous quadruple murder in very short order. Although a direct tip from the public cannot be identified as the catalyst that led to the arrests, tips are always important, which is part of great police work from our force,” he said.

“We can now get to the essence of this issue and that is much bigger than crime, it’s about poverty," Bartlett said.

"We’re moving forward on our mission to establish a method to hold out-of-state apartment owners accountable for safe, secure and peaceful places to live. We continue to look down every possible avenue on how we can improve our city.”

See Thursday's Tulsa World for more information on the investigation.

Associated Images:

From left to right, James Poore and Cedric Poore. Oklahoma DOC and Tulsa jail booking photos

Clockwise from top left, Misty Nunley, 33; Julie Jackson, 55; Rebeika Powell, 23; and Kayetie Powell Melchor, 23, were found shot to death in an apartment at Fairmont Terrace at about 12:35 p.m. on Jan. 7.

Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan (right) speaks as Deputy Chief Dennis Larsen listens during a press conference to announce the arrest of murder suspects James Poore, 32, and his brother, Cedric Poore, 39 in the killings of four women at the Fairmont Terrace apartments in Tulsa, taken on Wednesday. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World