Tyler Cole Smith, attorney Erinn O'Leary, prosecutor Lee Ortwein and detective Patrick Miller are shown in front of Judge Lila Statom
Witnesses at the scene where Tyler Cole Smith allegedly murdered his 76-year-old grandmother said it was "like a horror murder."
General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom bound a first-degree murder charge against Smith to the Grand Jury after hearing graphic testimony on Friday morning.
Scott Smith, the defendant's father from Edmond, Okla., said he put his son on an airplane so he could visit Brenda Fay Ricketts at her home on Hale Road in Middle Valley. He said, "They were very close since the time he was born. He spent a lot of time with her in his early years."
The father said his son had never been violent, but he said he had "noticed a change in his personality in the past year. Some days he would act normally and some days he wouldn't."
Alton Lovelady, nephew to Ms. Ricketts and a nearby neighbor, said on Tuesday, July 23, at 10:30 a.m. Ms. Ricketts called him and asked that he come see her. He said, "There was no urgency at all in her voice." He said he afterward went by and Smith told him she was asleep. He said he told him, "That doesn't make any sense because she just called me."
He said Smith closed a rear sliding glass door behind him, grabbed his crotch, and said, "This dick drives the train." He said Smith's eyes "were really huge" as he talked.
Bill May, whose parents had been friends with Ms. Ricketts, said he lived several miles away but he "checked on her about every day." He said he went by the house that Tuesday night, and Smith said she was not there.
The witness said he felt something was not right and "I didn't sleep that night." He said he went back the next morning and told Smith he was going to stay there until he got answers. He said he went next door to the home of Jimmy Ricketts and they conferred. It was decided that "we need to go in there."
He said when Smith was told they were going to call police that he ran off in a field. He said he went inside first and found Ms. Ricketts lying on the floor of a bedroom, covered up by a quilt. He quickly went back outside, then Mr. Ricketts went in.
Mr. May, after later viewing her, said, "Half her head was gone. It looked like something in a horror movie."
He said Smith at times would seem normal, then he would start talking about foreign countries and conferring with the president. He said he sometimes would sit and stare at an object for 30 minutes at a time. He would not eat eggs unless he watched the cook crack them. But he said, "I've never seen him be violent."
Mr. Ricketts, who had been married to Ms. Ricketts some 30 years earlier and had stayed friends, said part of the back of her head was missing and her head was bloody.
He was asked on cross-examination about a man named David Branum. He said he and Ms. Ricketts had lived together and Branum had abused her. He said he had moved beside her to protect her from Branum, but he said he never came around.
Defense attorney Erinn O'Leary noted that there were narcotics in the blood of Ms. Ricketts, including meth. Witnesses said they did not see people coming and going to her house.
Detective Patrick Miller said he found "a badly beaten body. It looked like a horror movie. She could hardly be recognized as a human being."
He said the attack appeared to involve "a blunt force object."
The detective said what appeared to be blood was on the bottom of boots found in the house in the room where Smith had apparently been staying.
A county deputy said he searched for Smith and found him walking along Colorado Road behind the home of the grandmother. He said he did not put up any resistance and went quietly with him.