Trial To Begin For Man Accused Of Murdering Employee, Burying Him

The trial for a Logan County man accused of murdering his employee and burying the victim with a septic tank is scheduled to begin next week.

Daniel Triplett's jury trial is slated to start on the morning of Monday, April 17, for two charges: first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse.

Triplett and his employee, Brent Mack, went to a family's property near Mulhall in Logan County on Sept. 20, 2021 to install a septic tank, according to an affidavit signed by an investigator with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Surveillance video showed Mack go into a hole where the tank was to be installed. The affidavit said Mack "is never seen again in the camera footage after going down into the hole."

Triplett shot Mack in the back, killing him, said investigators. A month later, Guthrie Police, OSBI agents, and investigators with the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office dug up the septic tank and found Mack's body, said the affidavit.

"Everything just came down on me at that time when I realized that they found his body," said Mack's brother, Troy Franklin-Smith. "My goal was to find his remains and to get him a proper burial."

Franklin-Smith said he and other members of Mack's family will be attending Triplett's trial.

"I don't want anything to go wrong in this court. I want it all to be documented," said Franklin-Smith.

Mack was a father of three and a grandfather of three.

"(Triplett) has to pay for what he done to us, to his children, to his uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews," Franklin-Smith said.

Investigators said Triplett initially lied to them, saying he fired Mack, gave him a $1,000 severance, and dropped him off in front of a laundromat. But surveillance video from that area did not show what Triplett had claimed, the affidavit said.

After Mack disappeared, his family filed a missing person report and tried to find him.

Mack was 55 when he died.

"Every year, you know, and he never missed that year to send me a birthday card. And those are the things that's going to be missed," said Franklin-Smith, "And I'm sure he did the same thing with his daughter and two sons."