Okmulgee man sought in Oklahoma murders appears in Florida court on felony theft charge
OKMULGEE — The man sought by authorities here as a person of interest after the discovery of four shot and dismembered men last week in a river was ordered to be held without bond in Florida on Wednesday. He and his attorney are working to decide whether he will agree to return to Oklahoma or will fight extradition.
Joseph Lloyd Kennedy II of Okmulgee, 67, was arrested Tuesday morning by police in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, after a routine scan of an Oklahoma license plate on the Toyota Tundra he was driving alerted a patrolman the vehicle had been reported as stolen.
At a hearing held Wednesday in Florida's Volusia County Jail Branch Courtroom in Daytona Beach, Kennedy participated in a first appearance hearing with a public defender.
Kennedy faces a felony charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle there, court records show.
Oklahoman not just in trouble in Florida
On Monday, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice identified Kennedy as a person of interest related to last week's discovery of four bodies that had been shot, dismembered and dumped in a river.
Prentice confirmed the bodies were those of Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29, all of Okmulgee. Prentice said the men had been reported missing by family members after they had left on bicycles Oct. 9 and hadn't returned.
On Wednesday, a visit to Okmulgee revealed no impromptu memorial had been established to remember the slain men. However, people who live and work there were talking about what had happened, expressing concerns it might undermine their efforts to brand the community as a good place to make a home or own a business.
Joseph Kennedy II faces legal issues in Florida, Oklahoma
The accusation Florida authorities lodged against Kennedy doesn't only put him at risk of being incarcerated there.
The Okmulgee man also agreed in May 2013 to serve a 10-year deferred sentence — effectively a probationary period — in Oklahoma after pleading guilty to a charge of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and a charge of obstructing an officer.
Those charges were lodged against him in early 2012 after Okmulgee County deputies responded to a report of shots being fired at a salvage yard Kennedy owned between Okmulgee and Schulter.
According to stories published in local papers at the time, deputies took a half-dozen men into custody, including one Kennedy was accused of shooting.
Prosecutors accused Kennedy of shooting the victim with a .380 caliber pistol "without justifiable or excusable cause" and of providing investigators with false information about what had happened, court documents show.
The probation period for Kennedy wouldn't have ended until mid-May 2023.
A filing made by Okmulgee County District Attorney Carol Iski Tuesday asked an Oklahoma judge to order Kennedy to appear so that the court could consider the prosecutor's request to impose a sentence on the man immediately because he violated his agreement by leaving Oklahoma without permission.
Iski did not return a call Wednesday asking for additional comment.
Kennedy taken into custody without incident
A report provided Wednesday to The Oklahoman by the Florida Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety indicates four officers stopped Kennedy's vehicle without incident.
While the agency's reports indicate Kennedy had been reported as a missing person out of Oklahoma, Kennedy told officers that wasn't the case and that he wasn't in any danger.
Because he was driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen, officers took him into custody.
Contributing: Jessie Smith and Andy Dossett
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Okmulgee homicides person of interest held without bond in Florida
