(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County judge has scheduled a Jan. 20 jury trial for a Cushing woman accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the slaying of a woman who had lived with her.
The body of Amber Nicole “Nikki” Sporleder, 33, of Cushing, whose throat was cut, was found on Harmony Road north of Riverbend Road near Yale about 7 a.m. on May 24, 2013, according to preliminary hearing testimony.
Laurie Darlene Bacon, 41, gave the “green light” to kill Sporleder, Bacon’s murder co-defendant Justin Allen Kelley, 32, of Cushing, testified in a preliminary hearing.
In court Friday, District Judge Phillip Corley scheduled the January jury trial for Bacon, who was ordered to return to court on Oct. 24 for a pre-trial hearing.
Bacon — for whom the death penalty is not being sought — is serving a five-year prison term followed by five years of probation for twice possessing a drug near Cushing High School in 2013.
Her co-defendant, Kelley, is serving a 25-year prison term followed by probation for life — in exchange for his testimony against his murder co-defendants.
Another co-defendant, Denny Allen Sisney, 36, of Cushing — for whom the death penalty is being sought — remains in the Payne County Jail pending a Sept. 15 pre-trial hearing before Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler. Sisney’s trial date has not been set.
Kelley testified in a preliminary hearing that he drove the victim and Sisney in Bacon’s truck to the place where he claimed Sisney killed Sporleder, while Kelley stayed inside the vehicle with the radio turned up.
Kelley testified that he and Bacon were acquainted “through the drug game, selling, giving, getting high — she (Bacon) had the meth, I was selling it.”
Kelley admitted in a preliminary hearing that he was Bacon’s “muscle” in the drug trade.
Describing issues between the victim and Bacon, Kelley testified that the slain woman had been stealing Bacon’s personal items and “not paying her dope money.”
Bacon said that the victim “needed to be taught a lesson. Denny (Sisney) said he’d take care of it,” Kelley testified in a preliminary hearing.
Bacon said that the victim “was the reason she got busted the first time,” Kelley testified in a preliminary hearing.
Bacon had previously served about half of two three-year prison terms for possessing methamphetamine in a child’s presence and having pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture a drug, both in 2005 in Payne County, state Department of Corrections records show.
If convicted of her charges in the victim’s slaying, Bacon could be given two life prison terms.
At the time of his arrest in the victim’s slaying, Sisney was on 10 years’ probation for assault and battery on a police officer in Creek County in 2009.
Sisney served about five months of a one-year prison term for being a felon in possession of a .380 handgun in Tulsa County in 2011, DOC records show.
Sisney also served about four months of a one-year sentence for domestic assault and battery by strangulation in Creek County in 2007, DOC records show.
At the time of his arrest in the victim’s slaying, Kelley was on four and one-half years’ probation for breaking into Mac’s Jewelry in Cushing in 2012. He was ordered to serve a six-month jail term and pay $25,864 restitution.
Kelley’s criminal record also includes a domestic abuse conviction in Ripley in 2006, for which he received a one-year probationary sentence.
Kelley was ordered to pay $4,168 restitution for punching a man in Ripley, who received a fractured jaw in 2006, court records show.***
