Girls charged in shooting

Two teen girls have been charged in connection with a plot to kill their foster parents.

Ashley Nicole Jewell, 16, and Kelsey Marie Beames, 15, have each been charged as youthful offenders with felony counts of shooting with intent to kill and conspiracy to commit murder after Jewell allegedly shot her foster father Robert Parker, wounding him, early Friday morning.

Woodward police were dispatched to Parker’s home in the 2400 block of Hilltop Drive shortly after 2 a.m. Friday after Parker’s wife called 9-1-1 to report that he “had been shot in the right side of the chest,” according to the police call log.

According to the same call log record, “Initially it was believed that it was an accidental shooting. Upon arrival [one of the officers] adv[ised] it was not accidental.”

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal charges, when police officers arrived on scene, they talked briefly with Parker before he was taken to the hospital for treatment of his injury.

When asked if he knew who shot him, the affidavit states, “he pointed to Ashley and stated that Ashley had shot him.”

The affidavit then states, “Ashley then began to scream stating that she was sorry and that Kelsey made her do it.”

A CONSPIRACY

Interviews with Jewell and Beames following the investigation of the scene revealed that the shooting was allegedly premeditated and that they had planned to kill both of their foster parents, according to Woodward Police Det. Lt. Chuck Wheeler and Det. Sgt. Mike Morton.

“It all boils down to, they wanted their freedom,” Morton said, noting that the girls had allegedly decided killing the Parkers “was how they were going to get it.”

The family had recently moved to Woodward from Henryetta, Wheeler said, noting that both girls wanted to return there.

“They wanted to go party and drink and get high,” he said, noting that the girls also mentioned returning to friends and boyfriends in the Henryetta area.

Wheeler and Morton said that Beames had allegedly “egged” Jewell on in planning the shooting, knowing that Jewell was upset over the fact that previously her brother had been relocated out of the Parkers’ care into another foster family.

The affidavit states that Jewell allegedly told her foster mother “that Kelsey had been telling her that she needed to kill Robert and Barbra [Parker]. Ashley stated that Kelsey was telling her how they [the foster parents] took her only family away from her and that they needed to die.”

The police detectives said the girls allegedly admitted to considering a number of options, including poisoning or smothering the Parkers, before Beames suggested using two guns that the couple kept under their bed.

The detectives said the girls then allegedly developed a plan to obtain the guns while the Parkers were out of the home and wait until the Parkers returned and were sleeping to shoot them.

The girls also allegedly planned to kill a third foster daughter living in the home, “because she didn’t want to go along with it,” Morton said.

WHAT HAPPENED

The detectives said that on Thursday evening, while the Parkers were down the street at a relative’s house, the foster girls were home alone, supposedly getting ready for bed.

Instead, Jewell and Beames allegedly retrieved the two handguns, one a 32-caliber and the other a 380-caliber, from under their foster parents’ bed and tried to figure out how to load and use them, Morton said.

The girls then allegedly put the guns away, waiting until their foster parents returned and went to bed before carrying out their plan, the detectives said.

After Jewell checked to make sure the Parkers were asleep, the detectives said she and Beames allegedly entered the bedroom.

Allegedly Beames carried the .32, which she pointed at her foster mother, and Jewell carried the .380, pointing it at Parker, Morton said. On the count of three, they were allegedly to have shot the Parkers in the head, he said.

“But Ashley balked,” Morton said.

He said she allegedly took a few steps back before aiming again and firing the gun, hitting Parker in the chest.

Beames’ gun failed to fire, he said, noting “she had the wrong ammunition.”

The Parkers were awakened by the shot and Barbra Parker attempted to get to a phone to dial 9-1-1, Morton said, noting Jewell allegedly turned the gun on her, threatening to shoot her as well.

At one point, he said Jewell even allegedly threatened to shoot herself.

“But the gun had jammed,” Morton said. “After she took the first shot, it stovepiped and she couldn’t fire it again.”

At that point, Beames allegedly “books out of there and hides the other gun,” Morton said.

Beams then returned to the house, talked with the other foster daughter and the two went to “a residence down the street,” where the court affidavit states the girls were eventually found by officers.

COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

“The Parkers and the [other] girl are fortunate,” Wheeler said, noting “things could’ve really gone south” had the guns not jammed.

According to Assistant District Attorney Danny Lohmann, who filed the charges against the girls, Robert Parker is especially fortunate in that he only came away with “a couple of broken ribs and a bullet impacted in his sternum.”

“Luckily the bullet didn’t go between his ribs and hit some organs,” he said.

Wheeler said Parker is now home and "doing well."

WILL THEY BE TRIED AS ADULTS?

Jewell and Beames are now being held in separate juvenile detention centers, Lohmann said, noting one is being housed in Beckham County and the other in Texas County.

He said the third foster daughter is now being housed in “a DHS facility.”

Lohmann said Jewell and Beames have been charged as youthful offenders because under Oklahoma statutes, “the type of crime they committed automatically puts them in the youthful offender status.”

At this point, he said they are seen as “not juveniles but not quite adults.”

However, Lohmann said that “at some point in the future we could ask the court to treat them as adults or sentence them as adults.”