A married man who was found guilty Thursday of killing his girlfriend after she told his wife and other lovers of their affair told the jury during sentencing that a group of men kidnapped him and that they must have killed her.
Ocastor Ferguson will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of murder. The jury that unanimously found him guilty after deliberating for about an hour Thursday morning determined later that afternoon how long he'd be behind bars.
Earlier in the day, the predominantly white Collin County jury of seven men and six women agreed with prosecutors and found Ferguson guilty of killing his girlfriend Kayla Kelly, burying her body in a shallow grave near his home, and then setting her car on fire.
Judicial District Court Judge Angela Tucker read the verdict at about 12:20 p.m., a little more than an hour after giving the jury the case. Following a lunch break, the trial's sentencing phase began at about 1:30 p.m. with the state expected to call one witness and the defense two.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
In a surprise move, Ferguson took the stand and testified during the punishment phase of the trial after passing on an opportunity to defend himself during the guilt/innocence phase earlier in the afternoon.
Ferguson took the stand and told jurors he didn't kill Kayla Kelley. He said on the night in question he was kidnapped by three men, one of whom was angry he was dating Kelley. He said it was those three men who must have killed his girlfriend.
He said the claim by a state witness that he tried to create an alibi by texting Kelley and asking her where she was while standing over her body buried in a shallow grave never took place.
Ferguson's wife Latrina Chandler stuck by him until the end, returning to the witness stand Thursday afternoon to again speak on her husband's behalf saying he was a generous person who has never hurt a fly. She said he was a preacher in his native Jamaica and that he taught Sunday School.
Chander seemed to excuse his multiple affairs saying, "He's young. People cheat."
DEFENSE SAYS 'THEY GOT IT WRONG' IN CLOSING ARGUMENTS
In his closing argument, defense attorney Edwin “Bubba” King said, "They got it wrong," insisting the case had been heard in the wrong jurisdiction because the state did not show evidence proving Kelley died in Collin County. Any potential trial, he went on to say, should be held in Tarrant County where Kelley's body was discovered and where she worked.
King also noted how the state did not present any photographs of their search of Kelley or Ferguson’s homes.
“There’s a big voice here on the level of evidence,” he said.
King also disputed the accuracy of the mobile phone data collected by investigators. Jurors, he said, may consider his client a “womanizer,” but said, “There is no evidence of any kind that ties Ocastor Ferguson to the murder of this woman.”
Ferguson opted not to take the stand in his defense Thursday, though he paused before telling the judge he chose not to testify.
“They did recover physical evidence,” prosecutor Kailey Gillman shot back in her closing argument. “They recovered this woman’s body.”
Gillman said she has never heard of any other jury with such a ‘step-by-step’ of a defendant’s movements than this case.
“Without following his movements, she never would have been found,” Gillman said.
Kelley discovered the man she knew as "Kevin Brown" was named Ocastor Ferguson and that he was married. Still, she was determined to become his wife and was made to believe he wanted to marry her too, said prosecutors.
As their volatile relationship progressed and, despite opposition from family and friends, Kelley followed through on threats to expose Ferguson to not only his wife but to his other girlfriends as well.
Although not required, Gillman offered up a possible motive for the murder in closings, pointing to the text messages Kelley sent to six or seven women from Ferguson’s home the morning of Jan. 10.
“And that is the last time we ever hear from Kayla Kelley,” she told jurors. “He got caught by Kayla and because of that he killed her for it.”
WIFE OF MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING HIS GIRLFRIEND TESTIFIES
The trial began Tuesday with testimony from local and state police, Kelley’s cousin, and Ferguson’s own wife.
Kelley's co-workers at Raytheon called her family out of state after she failed to show up to work for a third day, leading them to contact the police.
On Wednesday, prosecutors and an investigator with the Texas Rangers said Ferguson’s efforts to create an alibi ‘is what got him caught.’
Data recovered from Ferguson's mobile phone and analyzed by local and state police detectives is what led police to Kelley’s body in January 2023, one week after she was reported missing, according to the state.
Ferguson, 33, is accused of murdering Kelley, burning her car in Frisco, and burying her in a wooded area less than half a mile from his Grand Prairie home.
Police found Kelley, 33, in a shallow grave lying face down and nude.
According to the medical examiner, she had been suffocated with an unknown object. Kelley’s death was ruled a homicide.
Dr. Stacey Murthy of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office testified Kelley’s neck sustained most of her injuries. One side of her neck was more injured than the other, she said. Ferguson’s attorney, Edwin “Bubba” King asked Murthy if it was possible Kelley’s injuries could have been caused by auto-erotic asphyxia and could be classified as such. Murthy said it is possible, but Kelley’s death is ruled a homicide because of how her body was found in the grave.
A timeline presented by the state suggests what may have led to Kelley’s murder early in the morning of Jan. 10, 2023.
Police believe Kelley took Ferguson’s cell phone at 2:29 a.m. and began sending a series of text messages to women he was also reportedly seeing, texting: ‘This is his girlfriend. He also has a wife. I know. I’m just as shocked as you.’
That is Kelley’s last possible communication.
Two hours later, mobile phone data and surveillance video captured only Kelley’s car and Ferguson’s mobile phone leaving her home.
Throughout the morning and day Ferguson’s locations trace him to a Walmart where he’s seen carrying a gas can out, he’s then seen at a gas station purchasing gas and a lighter with cash.
Ferguson is later tracked to his work in Grand Prairie where a surveillance camera in a break room captured him holding three mobile phones, one of which is Kelley’s according to police.
He proceeded to send multiple text messages expressing concern because she hadn't responded or brought him lunch. One text that was shown to jurors read, ‘Baby where you at’?
Ferguson then left work without clocking out, according to his employer, and headed to a wooded area near his home where police said he continued to send his lover messages.
Asked why this is significant, Texas Rangers detective Thomas Fitzpatrick responded: “We knew he was there looking at her dead, texting her’ and ‘He’s digging her grave, texting and asking why she’s not responding.”
Prosecutors also showed records of a new Lyft account created by Ferguson and used to order a ride back home after setting her SUV on fire and abandoning it in rural Frisco.
Ferguson’s wife, Latrina Chandler, took the stand for the defense late Wednesday afternoon. Chandler, who also uses her married name and is still married to Ferguson, smiled at her husband. She told jurors she met Ferguson in 2010 in his native Jamaica where he worked at a hotel.
She said after they married in 2018, she soon began to have suspicions of infidelity. The woman testified she would make Ferguson sleep in their backyard or his car and that occasionally women would show up at her house looking for him.
Chandler flew out of DFW Airport early on Jan. 10. She told jurors she believes other people were involved in Kelley’s disappearance and said she told Detective Fitzpatrick a man threatened Ferguson with a gun but that the investigator did not appear to be interested in her information.
Fitzpatrick later testified the information was not deemed credible.
