Brothers hearing delayed

Two Pawhuska brothers will have to wait a bit longer for their preliminary hearing on murder charges stemming from the September 2015 slaying of 46-year-old Osage County oilman Rick Holt.

Jeremy Reece, 32 and Tyler Reece, 20, faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiricy to commit murder and kidnapping Tyler Reese faces an additional charge of desecration of a human corpse.

The pair had been set for preliminary hearing on Monday, but the date was postponed until Sept. 8. .According to Osage County court records the “Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of preliminary hearing in this case.”

Holt was shot multiple times in September 2015 and buried in a shallow grave on Osage Nation tribal ground near Hominy. When investigators exhumed Holt’s body, it was also found that he had been burned.

Investigators believe the slaying resulted from a confrontation the brothers had with Holt over a romantic relationship he was having with Jeremy Reece’s ex-wife.

Because Holt’s body was found on tribal land, and Osage County Judge had orginally ruled that the Osage County District Attorney’s office lacked jurisdiction on the murder charges. But the ruling was overturned paving the way for preliminary hearing.

Officials with the U.S Attorney’s Office in Tulsa decided not to pursue federal murder charges in the case, reportedly due to “a lack of definitive proof” that the injuries which caused Holt’s death were inflicted on Indian land.

Their mother of the Reece brothers, Ann Marie Reece, is charged as an accessory after-the-fact in the case. Her next court appearance is set for Aug 11.

The Reece brothers remain in the Osage County Jail on $1 million bail each.