A Lincoln County jury has convicted a man from Sioux City, Iowa of first degree murder and three other felony counts in the death of a Carney area man.
The jury deliberated just a little over an hour before returning verdicts against Clyde Dean Clayton, 42. The jury found him guilty of first degree murder, accessory to felony, unlawful removal of a dead body and desecration of a human corpse.
The jury has recommended punishment at life without parole.
District Judge John Canavan, who presided over the trial, scheduled sentencing for 9 a.m. Dec. 3, 2024. He ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
Assistant District Attorney Kelly Trimble, who along with Assistant DA Rachel Thompson prosecuted the case, said following the verdict, “We are incredibly thankful for the hard work of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, the OSBI, the Medical Examiner’s Office, and the jurors in this case. This verdict ensures that an incredibly violent individual will never have the chance to harm anyone ever again. Justice was truly served for Brian Corey and his family.”
Clayton was defended by attorneys Kimberly Miller and William Pierce.
Clayton was formally charged July 14, 2023 in Lincoln County District Court.
A co-defendant in the case, Janelle Bertha Brown, 39, also was formally charged July 14, 2023 in Lincoln County District Court with first degree murder, accessory to felony, unlawful removal of a dead body and desecration of a human corpse.
She recently entered a guilty blind plea to all but the accessory to felony count and her sentencing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 10, 2024.
Supplemental information filed in the case by Trimble shows Brown has a prior conviction on May 1, 2018 in the District Court of Dakota County, Neb., for the felony offense of theft over $5,000.
Clayton and Brown have been in jail since their arrest on July 7, 2023.
At the conclusion of their preliminary hearings in December of 2023, each was bound over on charges of first degree murder, accessory to murder, unlawful removal of a dead body and desecration of a human corpse.
In a multi-page probable cause affidavit, investigators with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office detail their interviews with both Clayton and Brown and others they talked with during their probe.
The investigators also requested assistance from both the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to the affidavit, on May 12, 2023, Deputy Kevin Roe was first dispatched to a residence on East 840 Road in Lincoln County regarding a welfare check on Brian Corey. The reporting person was Trudi Corey and she stated she hadn’t heard from Brian in over a week.
Trudi was Brian’s ex-wife, the affidavit states. Roe said he went to the residence and couldn’t contact Brian, but spoke to his girl friend Janelle Brown.
Brian’s sister, Rebecca Suhr, also called in, wanting to report him as a missing person, saying she hadn’t heard from him since June 5.
During the course of separate interviews by investigators, Brown and Clayton accused one another of shooting and killing Brian Corey.
According to the affidavit, Brown claims she was outside after she and Corey got into an argument and that he and Clayton remained inside and were doing drugs (meth) while she was mowing the lawn.
When she went back into the house, she found Corey slumped over in a recliner and he had been shot in the neck and not breathing.
She told the investigator she saw blood on the wall behind him and blood on the floor.
Brown claimed she and Clayton waited until the next day to move him and she acknowledges helping Clayton move Corey’s body outside, says Clayton burned him, scooped up the ashes, went down the road and threw the ashes into a ditch.
She said she cleaned up the blood from the wall and helped Clayton burn the recliner in a burn pit in the front yard.
She admitted having a sexual relationship with Clayton. During the interview, she led Detective Larry Stover, Sr., to the location where he found burnt bones and the bags the ashes were put in.
The Medical Examiner’s Office came to the scene and determined the bones were human.
OSBI Agent Derek White was requested to first interview Clayton at the Sheriff’s Office. White later suggested Stover continue the interview with Clayton in which reportedly Clayton changed his story.
Clayton said Corey and Brown were arguing, that he went outside into the woods because he didn’t want to be around them and that he heard a gunshot.
He apparently told Stover he stayed in an abandoned house that night north of the residence and when he returned the next morning didn’t see Corey. He saw blood on the living room floor and walls and that Janelle was burning brush in the yard.
In the affidavit, he first denies helping Brown burn Corey’s body, then stated he put brush on the pile.
Clayton admitted removing floor tile and replacing it with Linoleum and replaced the door that had blood on it in order to do damage control.
As the interview continued later, Clayton changed his story a couple of more times.