Texas County DA Seeks Death Penalty for Two Suspects in Double Murder Case

Texas County District Attorney George H. Leach III filed paperwork in October seeking the death penalty against Tad Cullum and Cole Twombly, two of five people charged in the murders of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, who disappeared on March 30, 2024, while traveling to pick up Butler's two children.

The prosecution's filing argues three aggravating factors: that Cullum and Twombly were aware of the risk of death to more than one person due to a planned ambush of the women; that the murders were "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel because of the manner in which they were attacked and killed"; and that Kelley was murdered specifically because she would have been a witness to Butler's death.

The filing is described in court documents as a "statement making more definite & certain the evidence to be offered," laying out who could testify and what they may say. Much of the expected testimony is anticipated to come from Paul Grice and Cora Twombly, consistent with what has previously been presented in court.

Two weeks after Butler and Kelley were reported missing, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation excavated a burial site 8.5 miles from where Butler's car was found abandoned near Guymon. Investigators unearthed a chest freezer containing the bodies of both women. The burial site was on Cullum's property. Investigators determined both victims had been stabbed to death. An autopsy on Butler found she was stabbed nine times and cut 21 more times, with ten of those cuts resulting from Butler grabbing the blade in self-defense.

Five suspects were arrested in 2024: Cullum, Twombly, Grice, Cora Twombly, and Tifany Adams, the grandmother of Butler's two children, who had custody of them the day the women disappeared. All five face charges including murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder, along with two counts each of unlawful removal of a dead body and unlawful desecration of a human corpse.

At a November 5, 2025 hearing in Guymon, Cullum entered a plea of not guilty. Twombly stood mute and declined to enter a plea; the court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Adams previously pleaded no contest under a deal that took the death penalty off the table; her sentencing was scheduled for January 28. Cora Twombly and Paul Grice have individual plea agreements in place and are next scheduled to appear in court in August 2026.

Trial dates for Cullum and Cole Twombly have shifted since initial scheduling. Court records show Twombly's jury trial was moved from October to February 22, 2027, at 9 a.m., while Cullum's was moved from June 1 to October 19 at 9 a.m. The two defendants were scheduled to return to court on January 23, 2026, for a motions and status hearing.

At that November hearing, the state also filed two motions: one seeking the return of personal items to the victims' families, and a second seeking access to the defendants' jail phone calls and text messages. Under a ruling from that proceeding, all defendants except Cora Twombly and Paul Grice will have access to one another's jail phone records in preparation for trial.