Woman Charged With 1994 Muskogee Murder To Plead Guilty Next Year

A Missouri prison inmate charged with first degree murder of an 83-year-old Muskogee woman in 1994 is expected to enter a guilty plea on Thursday, January 5, 2012 in Muskogee County court.

During a hearing Thursday, Odessa Brown waived her preliminary hearing and announced she would be entering a plea in the case next week.

Court documents show Brown confessed to the crime in a handwritten letter to the Muskogee County district attorney. In the letter, she admitted killing Elonora Riley.

In 1994 Elonora Riley was pronounced dead of natural causes.

The retired social worker was a widow. Court documents reveal the Riley was strangled with an electrical extension cord after Riley accused Brown of stealing a ring.

Brown is serving a life sentence in Missouri for the 1995 slaying of a Kansas City, Missouri man.

Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore says after next Thursday's plea, Brown will be returned to Missouri to serve out the remainder of her sentence there. 

Brown will then be brought back to begin her Oklahoma prison sentence.