‘Person of interest’ in Oklahoma bicyclists’ slayings arrested in Florida

Police arrested a “person of interest” in the slayings of 4 Oklahoma bicyclists in central Florida — greater than 1,200 miles away — authorities stated Tuesday.

Joseph Kennedy, 67, was arrested in Daytona Beach Shores in a automobile “that was reported stolen to the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office” on Monday, police in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, stated in an announcement.

Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, have been reported lacking final week and have been discovered shot and dismembered days later in the Deep Fork River, Okmulgee police said.

Just after they named Kennedy as a “person of interest” Monday afternoon, police stated the person’s blue Chrysler PT Cruiser was discovered “abandoned behind a business” in Morris.

Kennedy was driving close to the 2800 block of South Atlantic Avenue at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday when a police license plate reader detected Kennedy’s automobile, itemizing the automobile as stolen and its driver as “missing,” Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety Director Michael Fowler stated.

Kennedy was arrested with out incident and made no assertion to officers, Fowler stated.

“Upon confirming [with police in Oklahoma] his status as a missing person we were notified that he is a person of interest in a quadruple homicide,” Fowler stated.

Kennedy, who has an handle listed in Okmulgee, on Wednesday was ordered held with out bail by a choose in Florida.

He’s being held on suspicion of grand theft of a motorized vehicle and as a fugitive from justice, according to Corrections Department records.

Oklahoma authorities stated they wish to convey Kennedy again to their state in reference to a 2012 taking pictures in Okmulgee.

Kennedy in 2013 pleaded no contest to felony assault and battery with a harmful weapon and misdemeanor obstructing a police officer, courtroom data confirmed.

To keep away from jail time, Kennedy needed to meet circumstances of probation till May 15, 2023, courtroom data confirmed.

Oklahoma prosecutors stated in courtroom papers filed Tuesday that Kennedy breached his circumstances and now needs to be sentenced for the 2 2012 costs.

The assault cost carries a most penalty of 10 years behind bars.

“There were a number of people who had broken into his salvage yard, and Mr. Kennedy alleged that he saw a gun, was fearful for his life and shot in self-protection,” Kennedy’s protection lawyer in that case, Luke Gaither, stated Tuesday. “The state clearly had a different side of that.”

The Okmulgee police assertion Tuesday didn’t identify Kennedy as a suspect in the deaths of the 4 bicyclists.

It was not instantly clear Tuesday afternoon whether or not Kennedy had employed or been assigned an legal professional.

Kennedy received on the radar of investigators after they searched his scrap yard and located proof of a “violent event” on an “adjoining property,” Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said.

Okmulgee police initially interviewed Kennedy on Friday, Prentice said, before he apparently left the state.

The four men were reported missing early last week after they left on their bicycles.

Prentice later said the men had been planning to pull off an undisclosed crime.

Investigators base the belief on the word of a witness who had been invited to go along as the men planned to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” Prentice said, using slang for a profitable criminal act.

Polly DeFrank and Suzanne Ciechalski contributed.