Judge rejects most motions in Texas County capital murder case

A Texas County judge cleared the way for most of the state’s case in the Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley killings, rejecting or narrowing nearly every defense motion at a lengthy pretrial hearing. The rulings left prosecutors with a stronger hand heading toward trial, while defense lawyers won only two limited victories in a case that still turns on what jurors will be allowed to see and hear.

The judge worked through more than 40 motions, including 32 from the defense, and denied or partially denied all but two, according to KSCB News. That means the state kept its advantage on several core questions: the court refused attempts to strike the bill of particulars, declined to throw out the death penalty on constitutional grounds, and would not block prosecutors from using victim-related evidence in the way they had planned.

Two defense requests did succeed. The court granted a motion to inspect all exhibits the state intends to use at trial, giving defense lawyers a closer look at the evidence before a jury is seated. The judge also granted a motion designed to keep live photographs of the victims from being shown to jurors, a narrow but meaningful limit in a case where graphic imagery could shape the tone of the trial.

The judge also placed strict limits on courtroom displays, barring family members and friends from wearing clothing, hats, photos or pins tied to Butler or Kelley. That restriction is aimed at limiting outside influence in one of the most emotionally charged prosecutions in the Oklahoma Panhandle, where the murders already drew intense attention because they grew out of a custody dispute and an alleged premeditated ambush.

Friday’s hearing also touched a separate fight over public comments tied to District Attorney George Leach. Defense lawyers asked the court to sanction Leach over an alleged gag-order violation involving comments to a Kansas journalist and a blog post about the case, but that issue was not heard and is now set for the next motion hearing on July 30.

The case has carried heavy weight in Texas County since Butler, 27, and Kelley, 39, disappeared on March 30, 2024, while traveling to a court-ordered supervised custody exchange involving Butler’s children, who were then 6 and 8. Authorities later recovered two bodies in rural Texas County on April 14, 2024, and reporting said the site included a chest freezer, a taser, tape and a knife.

Five defendants remain part of the broader case: Tifany Adams, Paul Grice, Cora Twombly, Cole Twombly and Tad Cullum. Adams later took a plea or no-contest deal that removed the death penalty from her case and was sentenced to life without parole in early February 2026, but the rest of the prosecution remains set for later courtroom battles. For Texas County, the latest rulings mean the fight is still far from over, with the next phase now centered on evidence, courtroom conduct and how much of the state’s case survives before jurors ever enter the box.