The jury pronounced a verdict of “guilty” today in the murder trial of Dan Triplett, on both counts, 1st-Degree Murder and Desecration of a Human Corpse. The jury reached their verdict after approximately two hours and twenty minutes of deliberation, in which it appears they did not lend much credence to Mr. Triplett’s testimony in his own defense.
On the jury’s return to the packed courtroom at 2:11pm, the jury foreperson handed the verdict sheets to the bailiff and the verdict was read. Along with their verdict, the jury recommended sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder count, and 6 years in prison on the desecration count. Triplett’s defense attorney Ron Wallace requested the jury members be polled individually, and each affirmed their verdict.
Triplett stood accused of the murder of his employee Brent Mack in September 2021, while the two worked together at a jobsite near Mulhall in rural Logan County. His trial began last Monday, April 17, in the courtroom of Judge Philip Corley at the Logan County Courthouse.
Day 1 of the trial saw the completion of jury selection, resulting in the seating of 8 men, one of whom was African American, and 4 women to hear the arguments in the case and decide the outcome.
Day 2 began with the State’s opening statement, in which Assistant District Attorney JR Kalka laid out the arguments for the prosecution’s case. Triplett’s defense team reserved their opening until after the conclusion of the State’s case.
Witnesses called during Day 2 included Mack’s daughter, Raychelle Wilson, who testified to contacting Triplett regarding Mack’s disappearance and her contacts with police to file the initial report. Her testimony also made the State’s initial argument regarding Triplett’s motive: that Mack knew of Triplett’s extramarital affairs and wanted to expose them.
Also called were Romika Hersey, Mack’s long-distance girlfriend, who testified to her contacts with Mack and their plans together; Guthrie property owner Nancy Simpson who discussed the details of finding Mack’s duffel bag and belongings in her yard; and Guthrie police officer Haley Fisher, who took the initial missing persons report from Mack’s family and had the first contacts with Triplett regarding Mack’s disappearance.
Most crucially on Day 1, the two parties argued before Judge Corley regarding presentation of evidence and testimony regarding Mack’s “propensity for violence”, a key element of the Defense’s case, as it turned out. District Attorney Laura Thomas herself argued in court and in an official motion in limine that any legal record for Brent Mack’s violent offenses were over 10 years old and could not be considered. Judge Corley ruled that he would allow only what was directly relevant to Mack’s propensity for violence, but that he would not permit those issues to be brought up as the prosecution had tried to do, through argument through the wording of questions to witnesses.
Also, Guthrie detective Michael Schmidt took the stand. Schmidt was part of the primary investigation team in this case, along with OSBI Agent Kevin Woodward and Guthrie PD Lt. Mark Bruning, who passed away last year. Schmidt testified regarding his part in the investigation, his interview of Dan Triplett with Bruning and Woodward, findings on Triplett’s phone regarding intimate text messages and nude photos Triplett exchanged with another woman, and the recovery of the receipt book that led police to the Mulhall property where Mack’s body was found.
In Day 3, the State presented witnesses to lay the groundwork of the septic tank installation job done at the Mulhall site, including refuting Triplett’s claim of work on his last day with Mack at a different site, in Crescent, as well as establishing the existence and recovery of the prosecution’s key evidence: security footage from a camera outside of a shop at the property across the street from the Mulhall property, that captured the visible work and events at the site as Triplett and Mack worked together.
OSBI Agent Kevin Woodward was called and testified to his efforts and findings in the Triplett investigation. He took the jury through everything that could be seen in the security video footage, and described the crucial moment where Mack disappeared into the septic tank hole, never to be seen again.
He described the arrival of the property owners 40 minutes later and their visible interactions with Triplett, and Triplett leaving the property alone about an hour and 15 minutes after Mack disappeared into the hole. Finally, he talks through the discovery and subsequent recovery of Mack’s body from the hole in conjunction with other personnel from the OSBI and the State Medical Examiner’s office.
During Day 4, the State called Dr. Marc Harrison of the State Medical Examiner’s Office to discuss the findings from his autopsy of Mack’s body. He explained his findings of Mack being shot, with an entry wound in his back and a .38 or .357 caliber slug still lodged in his chest cavity.
The State’s final witnesses were siblings Rosella and Jedidiah Edmonson, called separately to recount their interactions with Triplett at Rosella’s property, where Brent Mack was killed and where his body was found. The Edmonsons came to check Triplett’s progress on the septic tank installation job approximately 40 minutes after Mack was killed. They described Triplett’s behavior as “irritated”, “dismissive”, and “awkward”, especially since they had specifically intended to pay Triplett for the job that day and told him repeatedly after they arrived.
After the Edmonsons’ testimony, the prosecution rested its case.
The defense then made their opening statement and their key claim, namely, that Dan Triplett was attacked by Brent Mack while they were in the septic tank hole together, and that Triplett indeed shot Mack but that it was in self-defense after Mack pointed a gun at him.
After their opening, Triplett’s attorneys called Dan Triplett himself to the stand, beginning several hours of testimony and cross-examination. Triplett testified to how Mack came to work for him, what their relationship had been like, and what Triplett knew and had seen of Mack.
He then went through his retelling of how Mack was killed. He testified that Mack had jumped approximately four feet down in the hole, and that was seen on the video; he stated one could see the top of Mack’s head immediately after he jumped into the hole. Once Mack was down there, Triplett went into the hole, then Mack began arguing with Triplett about the heat and going home for the day. Triplett then told him that they would be done after this, this was Mack’s last job with him, and that Mack was fired.
Triplett then said Mack responded by saying, “No, you won’t leave me homeless”, pulling a snub-nosed revolver from his left jeans pocket, and pointing it at Triplett. Triplett struck Mack’s wrist as Mack fired. They then wrestled for the gun, raising both hands above their heads as they fought, and two more shots were fired into the air. Triplett says he was able to wrench the gun out of Mack’s hand, he struck Mack’s shoulder with his own shoulder, spinning Mack around. He then brought the gun up and fired. Mack “grunted as he was shot”, they wrestled for another 5-10 seconds, then Mack fell down dead.
Triplett then admitted he “freaked out” and decided to bury the body and cover up the incident rather than informing authorities. “I was an idiot,” he said flatly, stating that he panicked and should have called the sheriff. “If I had [called him], we wouldn’t be here.”
Kalka hit Triplett hard on cross-examination, regarding his claims of the fight in the hole, what could and couldn’t be seen in the video, and what happened to the gun and to Mack’s phone, neither of which were ever recovered. Kalka especially focused on Triplett’s consistent fabrication and refusal to confess to self-defense as Triplett now claimed, even when repeatedly presented with the opportunity after having the facts of his narrative refuted in the law enforcement interview.
The defense retreated after Triplett’s cross-examination, asking no questions on redirect. After Triplett was excused, they called Triplett’s step-brother Jesse McCracken, a retired Guthrie police officer, to answer a single question about Triplett’s character. After that, Triplett’s attorneys rested their case.
When court resumed today, Judge Corley gave the jury their final full instructions, both sides presented their closing arguments, focused primarily around Triplett’s self-defense claim and his credibility as a witness. Kalka repeatedly emphasized that Triplett shot Mack in the back, and had admitted it, as well as Triplett’s admission of lying the entire time and refusing to recant his story for his self-defense claim until he was on trial. “I’ve heard this story exactly one time,” he said, “the same time you heard it, last Thursday.” He then pointed out 15 weaknesses in Triplett’s story. The Defense responded in their closing, claiming that Mack “had a temper” and was the kind of man to fight and pull a gun on someone. He spoke to what the State’s case didn’t prove regarding what happened in the hole, since only Triplett and Mack were there. The State responded with its final argument: “Dan’s a liar, and I’m saying that because Dan said that” and that “there were two people on that jobsite. One’s a liar, and one’s dead.”
After wrapping up their closings, Judge Corley turned the case over to the jury just before lunch, and they were taken to the jury room to begin deliberations.
Judge Corley excused the jury after the reading of the verdict, then set formal sentencing for June 16, 2023 at 9:00am.