Published: September 05, 2008 02:00 pm      

3 men testify about girls’ killings

Oklahoma City — (AP) — Three men who have come under suspicion in the fatal shootings of two Weleetka girls testified Wednesday before the multicounty grand jury and two other people testified Thursday, according to a published report.

“I just wish they would catch whoever done it so they would leave me alone,” one witness, Toney Kelough, told The Oklahoman in a copyright story for Thursday editions. “I’ve told them the same thing over and over again.”

Kelough was questioned Wednesday along with 18-year-old Dustyn Dailey and Mike Gaddy, 19, about the June 8 shootings of Skyla Whitaker, 11, and Taylor Paschal-Placker, 13, the newspaper reported.

On Thursday, a man and a woman arrived at the courthouse in shackles and under guard to testify before the same grand jury. Grand jury proceedings are not public.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesman Jessica Brown said Thursday that detectives continue to follow leads in the case, but there has been no breakthrough.

The girls’ bullet-riddled bodies were found on an isolated Okfuskee County road not far from where one of the girls lived.

The judge overseeing the secret proceeding had ordered the arrests of two witnesses who failed to appear, according to The Oklahoman. It was not clear whether the two people brought to the court to testify Thursday were these two people.

Dailey, who was brought in Wednesday wearing shackles and jail clothes, testified about two hours.



He is jailed in Okmulgee County on a second-degree burglary charge. Dailey declined to comment to the newspaper after his appearance.

Gaddy, an acquaintance of Dailey, testified for about an hour Wednesday. His parents, David and Glenda Gaddy, confirmed their son has come under suspicion but said he was at a friend’s house at the time of the shooting, The Oklahoma reported.

The Gaddys said their son heard the fatal gunshots but did not witness the shooting, the newspaper reported.

The couple also said they fear vigilantes might hurt him.

“They’ve already chased him with guns,” David Gaddy told the paper. “Until they catch who really did this, Mike is in danger.”

David Gaddy said his son is mentally retarded and no longer associates with Dailey.

Kelough acknowledged seeing the girls playing in their yard the day before the shooting, but denied having anything to do with their deaths. He told The Oklahoman he was with a girlfriend when they were killed.

“I’ve told them 100 times I had nothing to do with it, but they said I done it,” he told the paper.

The 30-year-old casino maintenance employee said he came under suspicion because of some red stains on his shirt and pants. He said he told officers the stains were from wood stain and he showed them his woodworking project.

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” said Kelough, who added he has submitted to a DNA sample.

Ben Rosser, the lead investigator in the case for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, also testified, The Oklahoman reported.

Rosser said grand jury rules prevent him from discussing anything to do with the grand jury or his testimony.