The man accused of killing three Tulsa women earlier this year will undergo a mental evaluation after his attorney raised concerns about his client’s ability to comprehend reality.
Prosecutors charged Terryl Raysean Brooks, 23, with three counts of murder in early April after allegedly tracing to him three separate discoveries of dead women in east, north and midtown Tulsa.
Brooks last appeared in court in late August with his then-newly appointed attorney, Brian Boeheim, after the Public Defender’s Office withdrew from the case due to an undisclosed but “irreconcilable” conflict of interest, according to court records.
Handcuffed and brought to court at that time from the Tulsa County jail, Brooks seemed to shake and jolt uncontrollably, which, Boeheim told a judge, was likely a side effect of his medications.
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Boeheim’s filing for a determination of his client’s competency effectively halts the criminal proceedings against Brooks in the deaths of Tyra Dakia Whitaker, Elizabeth Joyce Dillard and Rainbow Starr Dancer.
In the application, Boeheim wrote that Brooks has exhibited paranoid schizophrenic and delusional behavior during meetings and that Brooks’ mental state “seriously interferes with his understanding of the proceedings against him and with his capability of aiding his attorney.”
If found incompetent, Brooks could undergo treatment with the aim of achieving competency. If found competent, his court proceedings would continue as normal. The status of his evaluation is slated for review in December.
Brooks’ case remains on the preliminary hearing docket also pending the receipt of Whitaker’s autopsy report, the only one of the three victims’ currently outstanding.
Twenty-four-year-old Whitaker, Brooks’ girlfriend, had been reported missing since January, when Tulsa police detectives identified Brooks as a suspect in the late March and early April deaths of Dillard and Dancer.
Both Dillard and Dancer were discovered dead of gunshot wounds at their respective homes, but a searching patrol officer discovered Whitaker’s body buried in a shallow grave in east Tulsa in late April. The Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released any reports or opinions as to her probable cause of death.
Dillard, 27, was found dead with at least three gunshot wounds to her torso on the front porch of her north Tulsa home on March 25, and Dancer, 69, was found dead with three gunshot wounds to her face inside her midtown apartment April 3, according to medical examiner records.
After his arrest, Brooks confirmed that he was in a relationship with Dillard and said he had been staying with Dancer, but he requested an attorney after police told him of their deaths, according to an arrest and booking report.
Brooks is listed as homeless in the report and jail records, and detectives wrote that they learned that Dillard had kicked Brooks out about two weeks before her death and that witnesses at Dancer’s apartment complex told them Dancer said Brooks had assaulted her in the days before her death.
Given the gap between Whitaker’s probable January death and those of Dillard and Dancer in early spring, detectives have said they can’t rule out the possibility that there could be additional victims.
Brooks had been under Oklahoma probation and parole supervision since January 2021 for a second-degree robbery conviction out of North Carolina, according to Department of Corrections records.
Detectives have reached out to other police departments as far away as the Tar Heel State and Florida to see if any unsolved homicides could be a match or to follow up on leads. Thus far, they haven’t been able to confirm any additional killings that might be related.
Brooks is in the Tulsa County jail in lieu of $5 million bond.
