Criminal histories of brothers accused in Tulsa quadruple killings are examined
BY CURTIS KILLMAN World Staff Writer
Friday, February 08, 2013
2/08/13 at 7:10 AM
Get the latest news on the Fairmont Terrace homicides: Read coverage of the apartment complex killings and on other homicides in the area nearby.
Two brothers who are jailed in connection with the January slaying of four women followed similar, albeit somewhat different, criminal paths prior to their latest arrests, court records and other reports show.
Cedric Dwayne Poore, 39, and James Stanford Poore, 32, have both served time in prison for unrelated armed robbery convictions. But while one reportedly participated in a deadly prison riot, another took college classes while incarcerated. Both were released from prison in 2011.
Both brothers made a brief court appearance Thursday morning via video link from the Tulsa Jail. Special Judge Charles Hogshead set a Feb. 19 arraignment for the men.
Charges have not been filed in the case, so no plea was entered on the brothers' behalf.
The men are being held without bond on four complaints each of first-degree murder.
Misty Nunley, 33; Julie Jackson, 55; and sisters Rebeika Powell and Kayetie Powell Melchor, both 23, were all found shot to death in Powell's apartment about 12:35 p.m. Jan. 7. Powell's 3-year-old son was found unharmed in the apartment.
Both Cedric and James Poore have armed robbery charges dating to 1995 and 2000, respectively.
Records show that Cedric Poore participated in tying up two victims at a strip club before making off with cash from the business in 1995. He received a 35-year sentence.
In James Poore's four robbery cases, records shows that he more or less tagged along with another man whom he had met in alternative school. James Poore served as a lookout and took cigarettes and lighters each time he went into the stores that were robbed while his accomplice held the gun and took cash, records show.
Cedric Poore reportedly went by the nickname "Insane" while in prison.
James Poore was considered at low risk to be a career criminal but rather "a young man lacking in self-esteem who has made a cluster of bad decisions," records show.
He is characterized by court officials connected with his 2000 robbery as a "chronic underachiever" who continued to improve himself despite his "dismal education."
Born in 1980 in Chicago, James Poore moved to Tulsa with his family in 1988 after his mother and father separated, according to court records.
He has at least five brothers and two sisters, according to court records and news accounts.
The Poore family moved into a rehabilitated Habitat for Humanity home in the 2500 block of North Boston Avenue in 1992. The nonprofit organization builds or rehabilitates homes for low-income families.
Records show that police searched the home Wednesday, as well as an apartment near 5800 S. Owasso Ave., in connection with the homicide investigation. They reported finding spent .40-caliber shell casings in the backyard of the house on Boston that were the same make and caliber as casings found at the homicide scene.
An article in the Tulsa World at the time the family moved into the home indicated that Erma Poore and five of her sons would live there. The article did not mention Cedric Poore.
Erma Poore could not be reached for comment.
In 1993, Cedric Poore began serving a four-year interstate parole sentence in Oklahoma stemming from drug distribution and auto theft convictions in Illinois, Department of Corrections records indicate.
Cedric Poore was still on parole when he was charged in 1995 with the Tulsa strip club robbery, a crime for which he received a 35-year prison sentence, records show.
James Poore, meanwhile, was struggling in school. He repeated the seventh grade but did no better the second year.
He ended up dropping out of Tulsa Public Schools in the 11th grade with a 1.62 grade point average while failing most of his core classes, records show.
He attended classes at an alternative school but never obtained his General Educational Development certificate despite claims by him and his mother to the contrary, court records indicate.
As a juvenile, James Poore was arrested once for shoplifting, records show.
He worked part time at fast-food restaurants before moving out of his mother's home when he was 18.
He worked as a janitor for a Tulsa fence company in early 2000 but was fired due to a poor attendance record, records show.
James Poore was in the process of enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps when he was arrested in November 2000 in connection with the four convenience store armed robberies, which were committed over a one-month period beginning in October 2000, court records indicate.
In one of the holdups, the robber who was believed to be James Poore said to the clerk, "Man, it's all right. We just got hard times right now," records show.
The total take in the four robberies: $293.93 in cash, plus about $403.60 worth of cigarettes, lighters and cigars.
About two years after entering prison, James Poore would be joined by two more of his brothers.
Desean Terrell Poore, now 35, and Delvone Floyd Poore Jr., now 34, received varying sentences when they were convicted in 2002 in a double-homicide in which a prosecutor said two people were "butchered."
Desean and Delvone Poore were tried jointly on first- degree murder charges linked to the April 30, 2002, slayings of Elisha Paris and Jamar Arledge.
Tulsa County jurors found Delvone Poore guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Paris and imposed a life prison sentence with parole possible. Jurors found him guilty of the lesser offense of first-degree manslaughter for the death of Arledge and meted out a 30-year prison term for that homicide.
Desean Poore received a 15-year sentence when convicted of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Paris. He was sentenced to 10 years for being an accessory to manslaughter after the fact in the Arledge killing.
Delvone Poore is an inmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Desean Poore discharged his sentence in 2008. Later that year he received a seven-year sentence for drug possession, and he discharged that sentence in 2011, DOC records indicate.
Meanwhile, in 2005, 10 years into his 35-year prison term, Cedric Poore was reportedly involved in a racially charged prison riot in Cushing that left one man dead.
An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent recommended that Cedric Poore be charged with first-degree murder and rioting. He was charged with rioting, but the count was later dropped.
Three years later, James Poore was featured in a 2008 Tulsa World article about inmates taking college classes while in a Hominy prison.
The article noted that prison officials had suspended the classes and locked inmates in their cells after a series of stabbings.
But when the classes were in session, James Poore was quoted as saying racial tensions among inmates had eased.
"The classroom actually promotes unity," he said.
James Poore spoke positively of the experience.
"Knowledge is a treasure," he said. "The first thing you do with treasure is you share it with the people around you."
World Staff Writer Bill Braun contributed to this report.
Original Print Headline: Criminal histories of brothers suspected in killings examined
Curtis Killman 918-581-8471
curtis.killman@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
This house in the 2500 block of North Boston Avenue is the place listed as the residence of Fairmont Terrace shooting suspects James and Cedric Poore. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
James Stanford Poore (left) and Cedric Dwayne Poore: Police believe they shot and killed four women in a Tulsa apartment a month ago.
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