Tulsa Judge Rules Man To Stand Trial For Pregnant Woman’s Death

A family is fighting to get justice for a woman murdered four years ago when she was eight months pregnant.

Monday afternoon, a judge decided there is enough evidence to make the father of her child stand trial.

But, Kenneth Hopkins’ attorney said there's no evidence tying his client to the crime and the case should be dropped.

Marshay Wesson was eight months pregnant when she left her home in Sand Springs in June of 2012. She drove to north Tulsa, where someone shot her several times in the stomach and in the face.

Prosecutors say phone records show she had been communicating that night with Hopkins, the father of her children, about meeting in the very spot she was found.

2/2/2016 Related Story: Tulsa Man Accused Of Murdering Pregnant Teen Charged With Murder

They say the records prove his phone was in the area that night and that they found DNA under her fingernail that can't exclude Hopkins.

Prosecutors say, in 2010, Hopkins sent her letters threatening her if she didn't terminate her first pregnancy. They also say the state had just started taking child support out of his paycheck to support his first child right before Wesson's murder.

They say all that is proof he didn't want the second child either. But Hopkins’ attorney, Pat Adams, said the case should be dropped.

"If this case gets to a jury, a jury will acquit Kenneth Hopkins in this case. We're still searching for the truth. We still want to know who did this. Kenneth wants to know, that was his child," Adams said.

He said no one can put Hopkins at the scene, and that police didn't do a gunshot residue test on his hands even though they talked to him hours after she was found.

Adams said the murder weapon wasn't found for years, and it was with somebody else who used it in a separate crime.

He said the DNA may not exclude Hopkins, but it also can't exclude half the African-American and Native American men in Tulsa County.

The judge agreed the evidence is circumstantial but said it was enough for a jury to decide the case.

Hopkins is currently serving time in federal prison for gang-related crimes.