In 2012 Kenneth Lee Hopkins was one of eight alleged members of a gang indicted in a federal conspiracy case that involved multiple robberies, according to the Tulsa World.
Having pled guilty to one robbery charge, Hopkins was scheduled to be released from Leavenworth prison on February 5, 2017, according to federal prison records, the newspaper reported.
Yesterday the now-26-year-old Hopkins was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Marshay M. Wesson and her unborn child. According to Arianna Pickard of the Tulsa World, the police all along thought Hopkins had murdered Wesson and her unborn baby, but did not charge him sooner because Assistant District Attorney Erik Grayless said, they “didn’t think there was enough evidence without eyewitnesses.”
Press accounts back in 2012 talk of how the 19-year-old Wesson may have known her assailant. Tulsa police homicide Sgt. Dave Walker gave a further explanation for their suspicions yesterday.
[P]olice initially thought the shooting was personal because the number and placement of the bullet wounds — several in her head and stomach — indicated that it wasn’t a random act of violence and there were no signs of a robbery.
A nearby resident found Wesson on June 4, 2012, slumped over the steering wheel.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Pickard wrote that Hopkins was the father of Wesson’s first baby and had pressured her to abort. “Wesson had the baby, and Hopkins received a court order to garnish his wages for child support a few weeks before she was killed, Grayless said.”
What changed in order to bring murder charges against Hopkins? “Prosecutors are now confident that Hopkins was the shooter based on cellphone records and circumstantial evidence from witnesses,” Pickard wrote.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
