A federal grand jury this week indicted a Missouri man for the first degree murder of a woman whose body was found in rural Mayes County in 2020, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.
In a fourth superseding indictment, Tre Robert Allen Ackerson, 28, was charged with first degree murder in Indian Country. Prosecutors allege that he took part in kidnapping Jolene Walker Campbell, murdered her, then conspired with others to tamper with witnesses in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the murder.
The indictment charges Breanna Lynn Sloan, 22, and Ackerson with kidnapping Ms. Walker Campbell between July 4 and July 5, 2020, which resulted in her death.
The victim’s body was found in a remote field in Mayes County on July 15, 2020. Prosecutors state that the victim was robbed and kidnapped in Missouri, driven into the State of Oklahoma, and then through the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation into the Muscogee Nation reservation, where she was murdered by Ackerson. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as a homicide. At this time, details of the homicide will not be released.
Ackerson, Sloan and Lane Ryan Bronson, 29, were also charged with conspiracy to tamper with a witness, victim, and informant from July 5, 2020, through the date of the fourth superseding indictment.
Additionally, Ackerson, Sloan, Bronson, Jacob Ryan Scribner, 34, and Kimberly Kay Grissom, 47, all of the Joplin, Missouri area, were charged for various witness tampering and retaliation incidents. The defendants, along with others, used physical force or threatened the use of physical force against four witnesses in separate incidents. Various assaults on witnesses took place that included witnesses being kidnapped, restrained with zipties, blindfolded or having their eyes duct taped shut, being shot at, and being beaten. The acts were committed to prevent the witnesses from testifying in the kidnapping and murder case or as retaliation for communicating to law enforcement. Sloan also allegedly offered two of the witnesses $1,000 in exchange for recanting and changing their testimony against Ackerson.
Ackerson and Bronson are brothers, and Grissom is their mother. Jacob Scribner is the cousin of Ackerson and Bronson.
In April and May, other defendants named in the third superseding indictment admitted to taking part in the witness tampering incidents in various guilty pleas. They include Morgan Lee Bowman, 26; Megan Louise Detherage, 28; Sarah Michelle Humbard, 25; David William Morris, 34; and Chloe Louise Stith, 21.
The Justice Department is committed to seeking justice on behalf of missing and murdered Indigenous people. This fourth superseding indictment is the result of a nearly two year-long FBI-led investigation into the murder of Ms. Walker Campbell, a citizen of the Osage Nation.
Law Enforcement supporting the FBI during investigation include the Muscogee Nation Lighthorse Police Department, Mayes County Sheriff’s Office, and Joplin Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin G. Bish and George Jiang are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.