Man Found Guilty In 1997 Murder Of Oklahoma Woman

Almost 24 years after her death an Oklahoma County jury convicted William Reece in Tiffany Johnston's murder. Johnston disappeared from a Bethany carwash in July of 1997, only to be found a day later strangled in a field.

The jury began deliberations just after noon on Friday. It took them under an hour to come back with a guilty verdict.

The first part of the trial spanned eight days and prosecutors called close to 20 witnesses to testify.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors laid out five main reasons they said Reece is guilty in Johnston's murder.

The first was that her abduction and murder lined up with Reece's other admitted victims. The three adults he admitted to killing were strangled with both hands, and a rope after Reece said they fought back. 

Laura Smither's death Reece claimed was still an accident, after he "barely" twisted her head, and broke her neck.

The state then said Reece's phone bill put him near the carwash the day Johnston disappeared, on a map the call came from right between the Sunshine Carwash and the field she was found in. Reece denied even being in Oklahoma to investigators earlier.

The match between the defendant's DNA and that of swabs taken from Johston's body is the third reason they said proved Reece killed Tiffany.

 In a 2016 recording he admitted to raping her. Another detail he denied in earlier interviews.

That recording, along with several others held the most significant piece of evidence against Reece, his confessions. 

His story changed over time, with the defendant admitting to more each interview; but he eventually admitted to killing Johnston, 12-year-old Laura Smither, Kelli Cox, and Jessica Cain.

Reece also knew information in Johnston's murder investigators said only the killer would know. That information included knowing what clothes Tiffany wore when she disappeared, her cause of death, and the route between the carwash where she disappeared and the site her body would be found the next day.

The sentencing phase will begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. The death penalty is on the table.