Murder charge filed after OKC police learn shooting victim hired prostitute
The 911 call about shots fired came in at 1:42 a.m. Nov. 13.
Minutes later, the body of Dillard Curtis Lee Tornes III was found inside an Oklahoma City apartment where he was visiting. The 34-year-old warehouse worker had been shot more than 20 times.
The mystery of his death was unraveled by the simplest of things — text messages, a homicide detective revealed in requests for arrest warrants for two suspects.
One suspect, Kevin Alando Kees, 22, of Oklahoma City, is now charged with first-degree murder over the shooting. The second suspect, Akevia Tammy Faye Davis, 22, of Del City, is charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Police allege Davis is a prostitute who regularly posts ads for sex on the internet. The victim and Davis had been discussing through the TextNow app "a transaction of sexual favors in exchange for money," Detective Sherrica Buckingham wrote in the arrest warrant affidavits.
Police got a search warrant for TextNow messages after learning the victim had been in communication with a woman that night.
Those messages showed Davis agreed to sex for a hour for $250 or for two hours for $400, according to the affidavits. Her last text to Tornes — at 12:07 a.m. Nov. 13 — stated she was five minutes away.
Police verified from cellular tower records that her cellphone was in the area from 12:20 a.m. to 1:42 a.m. Nov.13.
Davis told police after her arrest Dec. 12 that a friend dropped her off at the apartment and returned about an hour later, the detective reported in one of the affidavits. Davis said she told the friend "she did not have the money for her services because Tornes did not pay her."
She said her friend got out of the vehicle and went into the apartment. She said she then heard multiple gunshots and "knew what had happened," according to the affidavit. She said she was told she would be harmed if she spoke to anyone about it.
Police determined the friend was Kees, according to the affidavit. He was arrested Dec. 15.
They were charged Dec. 29 in Oklahoma County District Court and remain in jail. No attorneys are listed for them yet in online court records.
Kees is accused in the murder count of doing the shooting. Davis is accused in the manslaughter count of causing the death by telling Kees the victim had refused to pay her.
Police are still working to identify a third suspect because two vehicles are seen on a surveillance recording leaving the complex at the same time after the shooting.
The victim was born in and lived in Oklahoma City, according to police and court records.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC man's hiring of prostitute turned out to be deadly, police say
