SAPULPA, Okla. -- Found buried last year with the skeletal remains of two Oklahoma City women and a little girl were a rusted Ruger revolver and a rare kind of kitchen knife.
Prosecutors Monday used the discovery of that physical evidence and testimony from her own brother and son to link a Bristow woman to the deaths 22 years ago.
Beverly Sue Noe, 67, is charged with three first-degree murder counts. Creek County Special Judge Richard Woolery agreed Monday that prosecutors have sufficient evidence against her for a jury trial.
She is accused in the first murder count of causing the fatal stabbing and shooting of her former daughter-in-law, Wendy Camp, 23, on May 29, 1992.
She is accused in the other two counts of causing the death of Camp's 6-year-old daughter, Cynthia Britto, and the fatal shooting of Camp's sister-in-law, Lisa Renee Kregear, 23.
The three victims' skeletonized remains were recovered in April 2013 from a grave in a pasture near Terlton. Investigators are unsure how the girl died. Her hands and ankles were bound and her eyes, nose and mouth had been covered by tape.
Prosecutors allege in the charge that Beverly Noe acted "together and in concert with" her mother, Ida Mae Prewitt, who died in 2011. Prosecutors allege Camp was killed because she was in a custody dispute with her former husband, Chad Noe, over their son, then 4.
Beverly Noe long had been a suspect in the disappearances because she had admitted picking up Camp and the other two in Oklahoma City and driving them to Shamrock so Camp could visit her son.
Noe's brother, Grover Junior Prewitt, testified Monday she admitted last year to using a .357-caliber gun in the killings. He said the two spoke about the guns at a casino.
"She said, 'I'm the one that used the .357,'" he testified.
He also testified Noe was worried about a sawed-off shotgun that had been taken from him by investigators. "She said, 'I don't know if it was used or not,'" he told the judge.
The Ruger revolver recovered from the grave last year is believed to be a .357-caliber, according to the testimony Monday. The gun was so rusted investigators are not sure.
The brother also told the judge that Noe at another time had said she was the one who threw the gun in the hole. He said he was wearing "a wire" -- an audio transmitter -- at the request of investigators.
His testimony on that point conflicted with court records. Investigators -- who had been listening to the conversation last year -- reported in a court affidavit that Beverly Noe actually said her mother threw the guns "all in there."
Prewitt, 61, is charged with being an accessory to first-degree murder. He once owned the property where the bodies were found and pointed out to investigators last year where they should look.
He had had the hole dug for his mother for a septic tank after she bought five acres from him. He filled the hole in after the disappearances at his mother's request.
Prewitt became irritated when a defense attorney suggested he was lying about his sister to get out of jail.
"I'm not making nothing up," he said.
Prewitt said he thought his sister would come forward after his arrest last year, admit her role and clear him.
Chad Noe told the judge he now believes his mother and grandmother, Ida Prewitt, planned Camp's killing. Chad Noe recalled his grandmother had told him to schedule a time for Camp to visit her son, "and they would take care of everything else."
He said he then believed that meant his mother and grandmother would pick up Camp and bring her to Shamrock to see their son. He said he now believes his grandmother was saying that Camp was to be killed.
He described his grandmother as evil.
"She'd stab you in the heart and watch you bleed to death," he testified.
The judge was told that a knife found in the grave had the brand name on the blade -- "Butcher Shop Knife." The brand is considered to be extremely rare.
An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agent, Marty Wilson, said seven knives of that brand were found in a search this year of Beverly Noe's home.
Beverly Noe for years claimed she had dropped Camp, and the other two at a Walmart in Chandler rather than taking them all the way back to Oklahoma City. A day after her arrest in March, she changed her account for the first time. She told investigators her mother had agreed to drive the three back for her, according to testimony.
A district attorney's investigator, Andrew Howard, told the judge he asked Beverly Noe during that interview why the little girl was killed. He testified she replied the girl was "damaged goods" and asked what else were they going to do with her.
If convicted, she could be sentenced to life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Copyright 2014 - The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
