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Stories here are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Oklahoma City mom pays boyfriend to kill husband
Evidence for premeditated murder
Woman who attacked spouse in church in Bixby handed probation
What happened the night William McDonald was shot in the head in Choctaw?
He wants her back, but first he will have to get her out of prison
Choctaw police stand behind their investigation
Department of Human Services child welfare supervisor charged with domestic abuse
Meeker woman charged with arson, endangering emergency personnel
Former football player pushed out of twenty-fifth floor window in Tulsa
Abstracted from article in Murdrpedia
August 26, 1988
— Marilyn Kay Plantz, 27, was a homemaker and Sunday school teacher, and they raised their two children in a quiet Oklahoma City neighborhood.
But evidence showed that she hired her teenage boyfriend, Clifford Bryson, 18, and his friend William McKimble, also 18, to kill her husband for about $300,000 in life insurance.
Mrs. Plantz was romantically involved with Clifford Bryson, and had spoken to him and others about murdering her husband so she could collect the death benefit from an insurance policy valued at about $300,000.
James Plantz, 33, a long time employee who worked the night shift as a press-room supervisor at the printing plant for the Daily Oklahoman, was ambushed in his home by Clifford Bryson and Clinton McKimble after returning home from work.
At approximately 4:00 AM on August 26, 1988, James Plantz left his job and headed home. At that time Mr. Plantz was insured for approximately two hundred ninety-nine thousand dollars ($299,000). Mrs. Plantz was the beneficiary.
Clifford Bryson and William McKimble were waiting for him inside his suburban home and attacked him with his son's baseball bats. During the attack, he cried out “ Marilyn! ” to no avail. Marilyn Plantz was present as the men severely beat James Plantz with baseball bats provided by her.
Bryson and McKimble had arrived at the Plantz home the prior evening, Marilyn retired to her bedroom at approximately 10:30 PM. Bryson and McKimble remained in the living room drinking beer and smoking cocaine until approximately 11:30 PM, when they fell asleep.
Hours later, hearing a key in the front door, they hid on opposite sides of the door. James entered his home whistling, a bag of groceries in his arms. Bryson struck first, hitting James with a baseball bat Marilyn had provided.
James cried out for his wife, but Bryson hit him again with McKimble soon joining in. The men repeatedly struck James because “ he would not stay down. ” Finally, James crumpled to the floor.
As he lay moaning, Bryson and McKimble picked him up and took him outside, setting him beside his pickup truck. Marilyn emerged from the house, handed the pickup keys to Bryson and commented that James' “ head was busted open ” and that it was not going to look much like an accident. She told the men “ to burn him. ”
James Plantz was then loaded into the bed of his own pickup truck and Bryson drove to the 6500 block of N.E. 50th Street, a deserted location on the route James would have taken to work. McKimble followed in Marilyn's car.
There they tried to make the killing look like a traffic accident. James was placed in the cab of his pickup, behind the steering wheel. His body slumped over to the side.
McKimble then placed a rag in the gas tank and lit it. It failed to catch on fire. Bryson then poured gasoline on James and in the cab of the pickup. He threw a match in and the pickup caught on fire. As the men drove away, they turned around and saw James Plantz raise up.
Jim Plantz was still alive when the fire started. He tried to get out of the pickup, but quickly succumbed to the flames and smoke. The medical evidence showed that he was alive at the time because of smoke that was inhaled into his lungs.
Bryson and McKimble returned to the Plantz home where Marilyn was cleaning up the blood. McKimble helped clean the floor while she cleaned the baseball bats. She also directed the men to exchange their bloody clothes for clothes belonging to James and she placed their bloody clothes in a sack and told them to get rid of the sack.
The men soon left Marilyn's home and threw the sack of bloody clothes in the river. After going to a convenience store where they purchased sandwiches and drinks, with money from the James trousers, they went to a friends home, Michael Kendrick.
Bryson and McKimble told Kendrick about the murder. When asked about Plantz's two children, Bryson said they were asleep in their rooms at the time of the murder. Bryson also phoned Marilyn, asking if she was all right. Kendrick overheard Bryson say that they must stay close and that she had purchased a rug to cover up blood stains.
At approximately 5:15 AM that morning James charred body was discovered inside his burned out pickup truck. The driver's side door was open.
James body was slumped behind the steering wheel and his left leg was outside the pickup, his foot resting flat on the ground. Identified by dental records, an autopsy later revealed that he had died from a combination of blunt force injury to the head and thermal injuries caused by the fire.
The ensuing investigation quickly led to Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson. Evidence showed she and Clifford had an ongoing relationship and had previously attempted to have James killed.
Marilyn had indicated to her teenage lover that her husband was abusive to her and she wanted to get rid of him and collect on his life insurance policy. Marilyn approached Bryson and McKimble about killing James and collecting the life insurance proceeds. She suggested the men drive up on the side of his pickup and shoot him, or catch him coming home from work and beat him.
McKimble was offered forty-five thousand dollars ($45,000.00) for his part. At that time, McKimble indicated he was not sure he wanted to be a part of the plan. He subsequently changed his mind.
In their original plan, with Marilyn's help, McKimble and Bryson stole a car and waited for James to get off work. The plan was to drive up behind him, bump his pickup so that he would have to pull over and exit the vehicle, at which time they would kill him with baseball bats provided by Marilyn.
However, the men lost James' pickup in the highway traffic and that plan was abandoned. Marilyn subsequently gave Bryson a gun to shoot James with, but he pawned it.
A week later a friend, Roderick Farris encountered Bryson and Marilyn at a local grocery store. Bryson offered Farris $40,000.00 to kill James. He then introduced Farris to Marilyn as “ the one I was telling you about that would kill your husband. ” Marilyn told Farris it would have to look like an accident.
When Farris asked why she just did not divorce her husband, Bryson answered that she wanted to collect some money. Bryson indicated that if he had to kill James by himself, he was going to catch him coming home from work one morning, beat him with a baseball bat and set him on fire in his truck.
Later that night Bryson, Farris, and McKimble met at the Plantz home where they ate hamburgers and listened to music while waiting for James to come home from work. When Farris heard someone at the front door, Marilyn told him if it was James to “ take him out now. ”
Bryson picked up a hammer and McKimble a knife, but it was not James. Later that night, Farris was arrested and jailed on an unrelated charge.
Two days later, Bryson and McKimble were again with Marilyn. Bryson picked her up from work, where she had just quit her job. Waiting for James to go to work at 6:00 PM, they drove around, going to a bank where Marilyn withdrew money she subsequently spent on cocaine and beer.
Bryson told police he and Marilyn planned to move out of state and get married. But Bryson said Marilyn told him her husband had threatened to kill himself and her if she divorced him.
Prosecutors said Clifford Bryson and Marilyn Plantz planned to collect an insurance policy of about $319,000 for James' “accidental death.” Marilyn Plantz was the beneficiary.
Relatives said they initially believed the accident story Marilyn concocted. They offered to help her, even after her arrest. “ That's how unbelieving we were, ” said Karen Lowery, Jim Plantz's sister. “ We even tried to get a lawyer for her. Then the detectives started telling us what they found.”
The Plantz's two children were asleep in a bedroom when the attack occurred and heard nothing. Karen Lowery said she was stunned when she received the call that her brother had been the victim of a homicide, and then learned his wife and her lover were accused. “ It's like when you hear people talk about the perfect marriage — they never argued, never fought, no cross words,” Lowery said.
Jim was the third of four children and grew up in the Shawnee and Pink areas of Pottawatomie County. He was remembered as fun-loving, a punctual and dependable employee and a devoted father to Trina, 9, and Christopher, 6. “ His kids were his No. 1 priority. He was rarely seen without the two kids.”
The Monday following James death, police arrested his wife, Marilyn, on a murder charge. Even at that early stage, investigators believed she had paid someone to kill her husband. William Clifford Bryson, 18, and Clinton Eugene McKimble, 18, were arrested the next day.
On Wednesday, Marilyn Plantz, William Bryson, and Clinton McKimble were all charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty.
Police stated that collection on two life insurance policies on James Plantz, which were worth $319,000, was the probable reason behind his murder. Prosecutors stated that McKimble and Bryson were hired by Marilyn Plantz to kill her husband.
At a preliminary hearing for Bryson and Plantz, Roderick Eugene Farris testified that Marilyn Plantz said the murder would “ have to look life an accident. ” He also stated that a few days earlier Bryson had said Marilyn Plantz, had called and was crying because her husband had beaten her.
In videotaped testimony, Bryson told police how he and an accomplice beat James Plantz. Bryson said, “ I didn't have no specific reason why I killed him. All I was thinking while I was beating him was all the times she came up to me with a black eye and crying. I didn't like that.”
In the videotape, Bryson said that he loves Marilyn Plantz. He also stated that Marilyn said her husband had threatened to kill himself and her if she divorced him. But Marilyn denied any role in the killing of her husband and told police they had a perfect marriage.
Defense attorneys argued that Bryson and Plantz should have separate trials, because the defendants had inconsistent, mutually antagonistic, defenses. However, Oklahoma County District Judge Charles Owens ruled that they would be tried together.
Clinton McKimble was also charged with the first-degree murder of James Plantz. On October 20, prosecutors agreed to let McKimble plead guilty to murder and be sentenced to life imprisonment. As part of the agreement, he would testify against Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson.
McKimble said they left James on the floor bloody and hurt, then Marilyn Plantz looked at her husband's head injuries from the beating and remarked that it didn't look like an accident. “ She told us to burn him,” McKimble testified.
At the trial in March 1989, jurors took less than three hours to find Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson guilty of the murder of James Plantz; of conspiracy to murder; of recruiting others to help; and of arson. Neither Plantz nor Bryson testified during the trial.
The next day jurors deliberated for five hours before voting in favor of death sentences for both Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson. They were each also sentenced to 100 years for recruiting others to help in the murder, 10 years for conspiracy to murder, and a 15-year sentence for burning the pickup truck.
Marilyn Plantz was convicted March 24, 1989, and sentenced to death March 31, 1989, which she appealed. Clifford Bryson also received a death sentence and was executed June 15, 2000. As agreed, McKimble received a life sentence for his part in the murder after testifying against Mrs. Plantz and Mr. Bryson.
March 8, 2001 — Marilyn Kay Plantz was tried by jury and convicted for the crimes of Murder in the First Degree (Count I) in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.1982, § 701.7; Third Degree Arson (Count II) in violation of 21 O.S.1981, § 1403(A); Solicitation to Commit Murder (Count III) in violation of 21 O.S.1981, §§ 701.7 and Conspiracy to Commit Murder (Count IV) in violation of 21 O.S.1981, §§ 421 Case No. CRF-86-4781, in the District Court of Oklahoma County. The jury recommended as punishment the death penalty for Count I; fifteen (15) years imprisonment and ten thousand dollar ($10,000) fine in Count II; one hundred (100) years imprisonment for Count III; and ten (10) years imprisonment on Count IV. The trial court sentenced accordingly and it is from this judgment and sentence that Mrs. Plantz appealed.
The Court of Appeals sustained the jury's verdict that Marilyn Plantz and co-defendant Clifford Bryson were guilty of the first degree murder of Marilyn's husband, James Plantz.
According to Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Marilyn Plantz, now 40, lost her final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on February 26 th . Edmondson immediately requested the Court of Criminal Appeals to schedule her execution.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals then set May 1, 2001, as the execution date for Marilyn Plantz.
Almost thirteen years after Jim Plantz was beaten and burned to death in a murder-for-insurance-money scheme, his wife — Marilyn Kay Plantz — died by lethal injection on May 1, 2001, for her part in the slaying.
Jim Plantz's insurance policy was eventually awarded to his two children, Trina Plantz Wells and Chris Plantz. Forgiveness, James' sister Karen Lowery said, is unlikely. His father, Earl Plantz agrees, but he does have lingering questions. He said that Marilyn Plantz was readily accepted by the family when she married his son and that his son's death was like “a stab in the back.” He still is puzzled how a seemingly healthy marriage ended so violently. “All I want to know is why.”
© 2004 Abstracted from article by Bill Braun, staff writer for Tulsa World
May 27, 2004 — A woman has received 90-days probation for assaulting and battering her husband. In a related case, leaders of her former church in Bixby picked up misdemeanor convictions for failing to report the alleged sexual abuse of a child.
Tammy Britton, 25, pled guilty Tuesday to one misdemeanor assault and battery charge and no contest to a second count.
In accordance with a plea agreement, Special Judge Darlene Crutchfield deferred sentencing until August 25, when Mrs. Britton can have the case dismissed without a conviction. Crutchfield ordered Mrs. Britton to pay about $500 in court-related costs.
In related incidents, on May 6 th jurors convicted Robert Turner, Janice Turner, William Kelman and Karla Kelman — married couples and pastors of Harmony Worship Center Church in Bixby — of misdemeanors and assessed fines totaling $6,000 but no jail time. Jurors found the Turner's and Kelman's guilty of failing to report an injury to a child in 2002.
William Kelman and Janice Turner also were found guilty of assaulting and battering Zachery Britton — Tammy Britton's estranged husband — in 2002. The jury cleared Janice Turner of an additional assault count.
Zachery Britton testified that Harmony Worship had a “sexual purity curriculum,” and he said members of the congregation attacked him after he confessed to violating those guidelines. Mr. Britton said he was told that “I needed my flesh disciplined so that my soul could be saved.”
Defense witnesses said that never happened. But Tammy Britton, Zachery's estranged wife and a prosecution witness against the Turner's and Kelman's, said she punched and kicked her husband during a church session and saw other church members hit him.
Tammy Britton testified that after hearing that her daughter was “acting out” at day care as if she had been abused, “crazy things started coming out of my mouth,” and “I said it must have been me.”
Following a police investigation, no one was charged with abusing the child, and “clearly it didn't happen,” Tammy Britton's attorney, Allen Smallwood, said Wednesday.
The child, who turns 3 in September, now lives with her father in Illinois.
William McDonald tells his version of events in more detail at Justice For All Americans. It does appear that the police and prosecutors did a really sloppy job of investigating and that false charges were filed against his wife. However, as in all such cases, when a person pleads guilty it must be assumed that they are guilty. It would certainly appear that Caren McDonald was coerced into accepting a plea bargain leaving justice DOA as in most cases of violence within a family.
The following © 2005 by Michael Baker , The Oklahoman
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Monday, March 7, 2005 — William McDonald claims his wife — accused of shooting him in the head, beating him with a baseball bat and leaving him on the edge of death — didn't do it.
Police: Caren McDonald shot her husband and beat him with a baseball bat. She pled guilty to assault and battery. The shooting charge was dismissed.
William McDonald: It was an accident. Caren McDonald heard a noise and woke her husband. When he jerked, the gun flipped, the covers caught the trigger, and the gun fired.
Fresh blood was found on sheets in the closet and on the walls, bedpost and floor. It was smeared on a wooden baseball bat and splattered in much of the house.
Police: The blood stains are signs of a struggle. Blood also was found on cleaning supplies — a mop, bucket and vacuum.
McDonald: Although wounded, McDonald grabbed the bat and checked the house for intruders, spreading the blood around.
Doctors said William McDonald had numerous bruises inflicted with a blunt object.
Police: McDonald was severely beaten with a wooden baseball bat, found in the house smeared with blood.
McDonald: Many of the injuries were suffered when the throttle cable on a dirt bike broke, and he was thrown about 50 feet, splitting his helmet.
Air Force investigators told police Caren McDonald once had threatened to kill William McDonald.
Police: Military investigators had looked into past domestic problems between the couple.
McDonald: “We were not having any domestic problems. We had just gotten back from a romantic getaway in Broken Bow.”
Caren McDonald, 32, is serving a three-year prison term after admitting she beat her husband with the bat June 21, 2002, at their Choctaw home. A charge of shooting with intent to kill was dismissed.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Oklahoma City, William McDonald, 42, claims:
• His wife was coerced into pleading guilty.
• The Choctaw Police Department's investigation was a sham.
• He was never contacted about the case.
• He also pleads for the immediate “release of my loving wife that is being held falsely.”
The Choctaw Police Department and Detective Marsha Van Houtte, a lead investigator on the case, asked that the court dismiss McDonald's complaint, denying the investigation was improper or violated anybody's rights.
William McDonald — who answered questions from The Oklahoman by e-mail because, he said, he still has trouble talking — is living in Florida. He wrote that his wife never beat him and he accidentally shot himself.
“They accused my wife of beating me and shooting me on purpose and why I do not understand to this day?” he wrote. “My wife has never hit me in any way and we were not having any domestic problems.”
More importantly, McDonald wrote, authorities never contacted him in the two years between the shooting and his wife's sentencing.
Investigators repeatedly tried to contact William McDonald, but could not communicate with him, Choctaw Police Chief Billy Carter said.
After William McDonald was shot, doctors said he would either be in a coma or die.
He beat the odds. But while recovering, he said, he was cut off from his wife and her June 4, 2004, sentencing.
Five days after the sentencing, William McDonald said, he sent this e-mail to his wife's attorney:
“I have just found out she got convicted getting three years and seven years probation she is not guilty I have been purposely keep out of it.”
William McDonald's lawsuit includes an affidavit by his wife, who recanted her confession:
“The reason I signed the plea bargain was because my attorney told me to go to trial would cost at least another $50-60K and if I lost I would face a 30-year sentence; so I took the lesser of two evils and signed the plea bargain.”
Caren McDonald pled guilty to assault and battery with a bat on her husband. A check of court records shows she had no prior record before the plea. She is serving her sentence at the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, according to records kept by the Oklahoma Corrections Department.
Caren McDonald's attorney at the time, John W. Coyle, thinks his client got a fair deal.
“I'm confident that she made the right choice considering the evidence in the case...There was a lot of evidence that was damaging to her,” Coyle said. “(William McDonald's) involvement in the case is not nearly as important as he may think it is. There was a lot of evidence aside from any testimony he might have offered.”
Coyle said he plans on filing an application with the court to reduce Caren McDonald's sentence.
Law enforcement officials don't believe Caren McDonald's recantation and question her husband's ability to recall what happened at 1351 S Choctaw Road.
Caren McDonald was not pressured when she came to prosecutors and admitted she beat her husband after an argument, Assistant District Attorney Ken Stoner said.
“I only considered what she told me whenever she came in on her own,” Stoner said. He said he gave her the benefit of the doubt when she said the shooting was an accident.
Even William McDonald's story has changed since he first told police he was shot by two guys who ran off outside, Stoner said. During his recovery, the victim said he couldn't remember what had happened, Stoner said.
“The mere fact that we filed a charge tells that I stood behind the investigation,” Carter said. “There was no evidence to believe that an accident occurred there. Forensics led us to believe that we had enough to file a charge, which we did.”
• All the evidence, presented in court papers and testimony, pointed at Caren McDonald.
• Blood was in the bedroom and throughout much of the house, indicating a physical struggle occurred.
• Blood-soaked sheets were found in a closet. Fresh sheets were on the bed. Blood was smeared on a wooden baseball bat.
• Investigators found blood on cleaning supplies.
• Caren McDonald's story didn't add up. The night her husband was shot, she said William McDonald went to investigate a noise outside, possibly a prowler, and that she “dozed off” until a gunshot startled her.
• Officers found no signs of a prowler. They checked outside the McDonalds' home and saw that dirt, dew and cobwebs were undisturbed. No signs of a forced entry were found.
• The only blood officers found outside was on the front porch, where William McDonald lay bleeding when they arrived.
William McDonald has answers for the evidence. He remembers a night far different from what police reconstructed:
• That evening before the couple fell asleep, William McDonald placed a pistol in bed, pointing at his feet because the couple were having problems with neighborhood teenagers.
• Caren McDonald heard a noise outside and nudged her husband — who in the Gulf War developed a habit of quickly waking.
• He jerked up. The gun flipped toward his head. Covers caught the trigger. The gun fired.
• The wounded McDonald grabbed the baseball bat and went to check for intruders. He fell over a wine rack and a chair. The movement spread blood throughout the house.
• When he reached the outside, William McDonald saw two people jump the fence and run away.
The shooting victim has received support from Caren McDonald's family and a judicial activist.
“I think it's legit or else we wouldn't have gotten involved,” said Carl Weston of Judicial Reform Investigations, who is not a lawyer but is assisting McDonald with his lawsuit.
For better or for worse, William McDonald wants his wife back.
He explains in his lawsuit: “Why on God's green earth would anyone...file such a case as this if Petitioner's loving wife was guilty.”
© 2009 by Jay F. Marks, NewsOK
April 30, 2009 — A Department of Human Services supervisor in Jackson County is on leave in Altus after being charged with assaulting her teenage son.
Kathryn Jan Davis, 39, was charged Monday with domestic abuse in the presence of a minor.
Davis attacked her 16-year-old son — scratching his face and trying to stab him in the leg with a fork — after he hid a box of wine from her Sunday night, according to court papers. Her 13-year-old daughter was also in the house at the time.
Davis was arrested after Altus police arrived at her home. She refused to explain the fight with her son, according to an officer's affidavit.
The teen told police he tried to hide a box of wine from his mother, who has a drinking problem, the affidavit states. She jumped on him when he refused to give it back, he said.
Officers noted two scratches on his face.
Davis' children were left at home when she was arrested after they assured police they would be able to get themselves to school the next morning.
DHS officials said Ms. Davis has worked for the agency since 1999. She is a supervisor in the child welfare division in Jackson County.
Davis is on annual leave, but officials would not say whether she went on leave because of her arrest.
Abstracted from story by Kim Morava , Shawnee News-Star
May 5, 2011 — A Meeker woman has been charged with third-degree arson and endangering the life of firefighters for setting several fires at her property in April. Firefighters responded to eleven fires on the couple's property during that month, most of them occurring during wildfire danger conditions that prompted burn bans. The fires caused several thousand dollars in damage.
An arrest affidavit in the case shows that on April 7 th Mrs. Flick reported that someone had set a well house on fire at their property.
Mrs. Flick's husband then set out a trail camera in a barbecue grill to catch whoever was setting the fires, and that camera was turned over to Sheriff's Detective Mike Carnell. The camera showed Sharlet Flick walking to the well house April 7 th carrying a flashlight. As Sharlet walked back from the well house the camera shoed the trees lighting up from the fire. The camera also showed her going back to the fire after it was going.
Sharlet Renea Flick, 47, is charged with two felonies in Pottawatomie County District Court. In count one, she is charged with third-degree arson and is accused of maliciously setting fire to an outbuilding as well as a camper on the couple's property that was unoccupied.
In a second count of endangering human life during arson, she is accused of endangering the life of multiple emergency service personnel during the commission of arson.
Among the state's witnesses in the case are nineteen Shawnee firefighters who responded to fires at the property, as well as numerous Pottawatomie County sheriff's deputies.
When she was confronted about the fires, the affidavit shows that family members were worried because Sharlet Flick was saying “strange things.” She was taken to Unity Health Center and then transferred to another facility for further evaluation, according to the affidavit.
Abstracted from news reports and KnowledgeRing.com
June 7, 2011
— Josh Hilberling, 23, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 220-pound former football player, died after he plunged 17 stories from his Oklahoma apartment building, a victim of spousal abuse. He was currently serving in the Air Force.
Shortly after 4 PM police were called to 1722 South Carson Avenue, the location of the University Club Tower apartment complex in Tulsa. They arrived to find Joshua Hilberling dead in the parking garage. After investigating it was discovered that he'd been pushed through his apartment window by his 19-year-old wife Amber Hilberling.
Police arrested Amber Michelle Hilberling, initially charging her with second-degree murder. However, the charge was escalated to first-degree murder after further investigation into the matter.
The couple was married less than a year but Joshua Hilberling had filed a protective order against his wife in May, telling a judge that she threw a lamp at him and busted him in the head. Other reports reveal claims by Amber Hilberling of abuse inflicted on her by the deceased during their short marriage.
Members of Joshua Hilberling's family are said to have told police that Amber Hilberling was aggressively abusive. However, police are also being told by Amber Hilberling's family that Joshua Hilberling was the abuser in the relationship. Patrick Hilberling, the father of the victim, is being quoted as saying his son stayed in an a relationship where he was being abused by his wife because he thought he could fix the problem and Amber was 8-months pregnant with the couple's first child.
Amber Hilberling was sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, in October 2016 she committed suicide and hung herself in her jail cell.
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