'It Was Heartless. It Was Cold': Man Found Guilty For Murdering, Burying Employee In 2021

A Logan County jury convicted a Guthrie man for murdering his employee and burying the victim with a septic tank.

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

The jurors found Daniel Triplett guilty on two charges: first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse. He faces up to life in prison without parole for the murder charge and up to seven years in prison and an $8,000 fine for the second charge.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours following closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense.

Triplett's sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 16.

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.

"It was heartless. It was cold. It was thought of and he thought his actions wasn't going to be seen," said Mack's son, Brendon Mack.

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.

During closing arguments on Tuesday, Triplett's attorney, Ronald Wallace, told the jury that Triplett was acting in self-defense after Mack pointed a gun at him. Wallace said Triplett took the gun from Mack, shouldered him, and shot Mack instinctively.

But Assistant District Attorney J.R. Kalka argued that Triplett could not be trusted in claiming self-defense because he lied to law enforcement and admitted to being dishonest.

Kalka also argued that Triplett's story did not add up because Mack would have had a difficult time drawing a snub-nose revolver from his jeans and pulling the trigger with his work gloves on. Furthermore, given that Triplett was older, smaller and weaker than Mack, and had minimal self-defense experience, Kalka argued that Triplett would not have been able to grab the gun from Mack.

"Brent was a victim of execution, not altercation," Kalka told the jury. "Brent Mack never knew that gunshot was coming."

But the defense argued that Triplett was fighting for his life and that "there is no book on how to act" when being threatened with a gun. Wallace also praised Triplett's character, saying he is a husband with three children who had been living in Guthrie all his life. Meanwhile, Wallace questioned Mack's character, saying he was a convicted felon who had a temper.

Kalka, however, argued that Mack was shot in the back without knowing because the surveillance camera did not capture a struggle, which would have been possible if the hole was 6 feet deep like the defense claimed.

But Wallace said a pile of dirt on the south side of the hole obstructed the view.

In addition, Kalka questioned the defense's claim that prior to the shooting, Triplett fired Mack because Mack wanted to leave the job site. Kalka said that was untrue because Mack was almost done with the job, so it wouldn't have made sense for him to want to leave.

After learning that the jury convicted Triplett on both charges, Mack's family embraced outside the courtroom.

"This is closure day," said Mack's brother, Troy Franklin-Smith. “We believed in the law and the law upheld (Tuesday) and he needs to go exactly where he's been."

Triplett showed little emotion as he learned about the guilty verdict. 

Meanwhile, Mack's son said he was not surprised by the jury's decision because he knew Triplett had been lying.

"Didn't seem truthful at all. Obviously, we know what happened. That man, he's going to rot," said Brendon Mack.

"This has been a long fight and we wasn't going anywhere," Franklin-Smith added. "So when (Triplett) sees this (Tuesday night), he can look me in my face on TV because he couldn't do it in the courtroom and understand that we wasn't going nowhere. I wasn't going nowhere. This family is not going anywhere."

Mack was 55 when he died. He was a father of three and a grandfather of three.

"We did it bro," said Franklin-Smith. "We got the justice that you wanted."