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William, his half-brother Anthony James "Tony" Mann, Bobby Joe Glass, and Richard Neal Jones abducted his brother-in-law, Charles Keene, from his sister's (Charles' ex-wife) trailer home in Amber, Oklahoma and murdered him in the early morning hours of January 23, 1983. Keene was shot once in the head and once in the chest, and his throat, chest, and abdomen had been cut. He also had multiple bruises and abrasions, especially about his face and head, and his left leg was broken. Keene's body was chained to a concrete block and thrown into the Washita River, where it remained undiscovered until February 18, 1983. The four co-defendants were tried separately. Each received the death penalty.
This was not the first time a member of Vickie Keene's family had shot Charles Keene. Several years earlier, a brother-in-law had shot him because he thought Keene was going to kill her child. No charges were filed at that time.
Although divorced, Keene had been physically abusing his ex-wife, Vickie Keene. Mann and Thompson's plan on January 22, was to put a stop to the problem. Earlier that afternoon, Keene had chased Tony and Danny Mann, another brother, out of Vickie Keene's trailer house with a butcher knife. They had gone there with her to get her car. After this encounter, they went to see a deputy sheriff for help but were told nothing could be done. Tony Mann then gave his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, the murder weapon, to Vickie Keene so she could defend herself.
Thompson had heard about this episode from his mother and had seen the loaded gun on the kitchen cabinet at his mother's house. Glass, Jones, Mann and another man were sitting around on that Saturday evening drinking, smoking marijuana and taking valiums when Thompson asked Tony Mann if he could join them; Mann agreed. During the evening, Mann, as the leader, hatched the plan to run Keene off by beating him up and putting him out on the highway with instructions not to come back. Thompson claimed that unknown to Mann, he and Glass put a cement block and chain in the trunk of the car and got the gun from the kitchen to take with them. Thompson said he and Glass intended at that time to murder Keene and dispose of the body by submerging it in the Washita River. This was the plan that was carried out.
Two witnesses, Donetta Bradford, William's girlfriend, and Charlesetta Garcia, Bobby Glass' girlfriend, testified that William told them that he had shot Charles in the head and cut his throat. Charlotte Mann, Anthony Mann's former wife, heard William tell his mother that Charles Keene was dead, that he had killed him, and that Vicki, the victim's ex-wife and his sister, did not have to worry about him anymore.
When William and the other co-defendants left their house on the evening of the murder, he told Bradford, "We're going to kill Charles." When they returned several hours later, he was wet from the chest down, his nose was bleeding, and he no longer had on the cap he had been wearing when he left.
Myrtle and Malcolm "Possum" Brown, who lived near the Washita River, returned from a vacation and retired early the night Charles Keene was killed. They were awakened by a gunshot and barking dogs. A man pounded on the door and shouted, "Possum, let me in. They're going to kill me." The Browns looked outside and saw three or four men beating another man. They heard one of the men say, "This is for the way you treated our sister." Mr. Brown telephoned the sheriff, but the men left soon after they realized the Browns were home and witnessing the fray. It was too dark for the Browns to identify any of the men.
"Although" William "was the youngest of the four assailants, his participation was hardly minimal. The evidence showed that he personally kicked the victim in the head, shot the victim in the head, slit the victim's throat, and dragged the victim's weighted body into the river."
One question at the trial was ruled improper. The prosecutor asked one defense witness whether he was related to Cecil Leroy Cloud. When the witness responded that Mr. Cloud was his father's step-brother, the prosecutor said, "That's the same Cecil Leroy Cloud that we sent to the pen for shooting with intent to kill, correct."
William was 15 at the time of the murder but was certified to stand trial as an adult. He had first been arrested for assault and battery when he was 13 and had arrests for burglary and for assault with a deadly weapon.
In 1986 the Supreme Court overturned his death conviction based on his age at the time of the crime. Richard Jones, also sentenced to death, retried in 1987 was acquitted of the crime in 1988.
He is serving a life sentence at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington, Oklahoma.
http://ok.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.%5COK%5COK2%5C1986%5C19860829_0040205.OK.htm/qx
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0487_0815_ZD.html
http://www.enotes.com/supreme-court-drama/thompson-v-oklahoma
Law and mental health: a case-based approach, Robert G. Meyer & Christopher M. Weaver; pp 320-321
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_v._Oklahoma
Law and mental health: a case-based approach, Robert G. Meyer & Christopher M. Weaver, pp 320-323.
http://law.jrank.org/pages/12852/Thompson-v-Oklahoma.html
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circa 1967 - 
