EDMOND —
A high-profile case stemming from the November 2009 murders of six metro area women has ended with a guilty plea.
On Nov. 11, 2009, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater filed six counts of first-degree murder against David Allen Tyner, 30, of Locust Grove, in the deaths of Jennifer Ermey, 25, of Edmond, Casey Barrientos, 32, of Oklahoma City, Milagros Barrera, 22, of Mustang, and her unborn child, and Brooke Phillips, 22, of Moore, and her unborn child.
Phillips starred in the HBO reality series “Cathouse,” a show about a legal Nevada brothel, a fact that generated national publicity.
Prosecutors accused Tyner of shooting and stabbing the victims, and then setting a home in southwest Oklahoma City on fire in November 2009.
Following the ruling, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater informed the judge and the defendant of the state’s intent to pursue the death penalty in the case.
The trial was scheduled to begin May 21.
On Friday, Tyner appeared in custody with assistant public defenders Mitch Solomon, Tim Wilson and Emilie Kirkpatrick. Assistant District Attorneys Gayland Gieger and Merydith Lusk represented the state.
Tyner entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced on all six counts of first-degree murder, receiving life without the possibility of parole.
During the January 2011 preliminary hearing, before the judge ordered the defendant to stand trial on the charges, Solomon moved the case be dismissed on the grounds the state failed to meet its burden of proof during the hearing.
Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Lavenue argued that Jose Fernando Fierro, a friend of Phillips’, testified to what he saw and that it was consistent with what he told police.
Fierro put Tyner at the house in the middle of the night, between 2:30-7 a.m., Lavenue said.
Lavenue argued that there was plenty of evidence Tyner was there to commit a murder he had discussed in front of Karine Sanders, self identified as Tyner’s cousin. And there was no evidence the unborn children died from substances present in their mother’s systems, she said.
marks@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 108
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