By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 41-year-old man, who apparently killed himself with a rifle that he used to murder two little girls he believed were his own, behind an abandoned mobile home north of Ripley last week, had attempted suicide in the past, according to court records in Payne County.
Jackie Lee Boyles Jr., who had previously lived in Tryon and Ripley, had a troubled history including being incarcerated for stalking and possessing methamphetamine, but he had been out of prison for eight years with no recent criminal charges, court records show.
About three weeks before the apparent suicide and murders, Boyles, who earned $6,666.66 a month reportedly from oilfield work, had been granted visitation every other weekend with the girls, ages 1 and 5, by a Payne County judge, who had not yet ruled on his paternity lawsuit in which he claimed he was their father, court records show.
But 11 years before the killings, which occurred last week on Monday or Tuesday, Boyles admitted in a court-ordered mental health evaluation in a methamphetamine possession case that he had “a past history of suicide attempts and stated that the method he used in the past was to overdose on his medication,” court records show.
“The reasons he overdosed in the past was over a breakup in a relationship or when he had pending drug charges that would have sent him to jail. He said he also tried to kill himself about 21 days ago (in January of 2008), which again had to do with relationship problems and pending drug charges,” the mental evaluation report said.
“He denied having any temper problems by saying, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone but myself.’ He denied any other type of any mental illness symptoms except for depression and anxiety. He did talk about having a past history of using methamphetamine,” according to the 2008 evaluation that found he was competent to face his drug charge.
Asked if Boyles had been taking drugs recently, Payne County Undersheriff Kevin Woodward responded, “We’re waiting for the medical examiner’s report to see what was in his system.”
“He was reported missing at 3 p.m. on the 18th with the kids, to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office,” Woodward said.
“We were notified at 11:29 p.m. on the 19th that Jackie L. Boyles Jr. was missing in a red 2014 Dodge pickup with a camper shell, with a one-year-old girl and a five-year-old girl. The last known area was 56th and Highway 108, north of Ripley,” the Payne County undersheriff said.
Payne County officers responded and located the vehicle at 11:53 p.m. on the 19th and advised that all three were deceased behind an empty mobile home owned by a relative of Boyles, Woodward said.
“The two girls were inside the vehicle and he was just outside the vehicle,” behind the abandoned mobile home, Woodward said.
The girls’ mother, who lived in rural Stillwater and had been awarded temporary custody of them, was notified by the Payne County Sheriff’s Office with chaplains, Woodward said.
“We asked the OSBI to assist us in processing the scene of the apparent murder-suicide,” Woodward said.
“We had a search warrant granted at 2:45 a.m. on the 20th. We recovered everything,” including the rifle believed to be the murder weapon, Woodward said.
Woodward expressed gratitude for the help that the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the state Medical Examiner’s Office, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the Tryon Police Department gave to the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, whose members are continuing to pray for the family of the slain little girls.
Boyles had been released from prison in 2011 after serving 18 months of two concurrent five-year prison terms he was given in 2009 for stalking in 2008 and methamphetamine possession in 2007, both in Payne County, state Department of Corrections records show.
Boyles had also served about 15 months of a concurrent three-year prison term he received in 2009 for stalking in Pottawatomie County in 2008, DOC records show.
The stalking victim — who was not the murdered girls’ mother — was another woman who had obtained a protective order against Boyles in 2007 in Pottawatomie County, court records show.
In a petition for another protective order in Payne County in 2008 that was denied while Boyles was in jail, she identified herself as his ex-girlfriend.
“The defendant and I dated for a little over a year and then I broke off the relationship on July 4, 2007. When the breakup occurred, he began to harass me and continued to harass me by sending up to 200-300 text messages and also hundreds of phone calls daily…I received many text messages threatening myself, my daughter, other family members, friends, and my property.
“He poured sugar in my gas tank or had one of his friends do it. He also slashed all four of my tires and broke into my mailbox and stole my mail. He then sent text messages to many people stating my bank account number and social security number…I made reports with Shawnee P.D., Stillwater P.D., Perkins P.D., and Payne County Sheriff’s Office.
“I am afraid that when he is released, he will come after me and/or my daughter to get revenge on me,” the Pottawatomie County woman wrote in her protective order petition.
Her father had also sought an emergency protective order against Boyles that was denied in Payne County in 2007.
He wrote that between July 4 to Nov. 30, 2007, Boyles had texted his cell phone “sending vulgar messages about my daughter…I don’t think he is normal in thinking. I don’t know what to expect next, but I feel it’s getting worse…I don’t know what he is capable of.
“I have to worry about what he is capable of doing. I believe that he is getting worse as time goes on,” added Boyles’ ex-girlfriend’s father.
Boyles exhibited bizarre behavior on Sept. 29, 2007, in Payne County, according to an affidavit by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Vernon Brake, by “driving around a blind curve on the wrong side of the road, almost hitting two vehicles and almost running into the rear of another.” For reckless driving, Boyles received a 90-day jail term in 2009 concurrent to his five-year prison terms for stalking and methamphetamine possession, court records show.
When the trooper asked him what was going on, why he was swerving all over the road on Highway 33, if he knew he almost hit another car and ran into the back of a pickup, “Boyles stated that he did not know. Boyles stated that he was texting on his cell phone,” the affidavit said.
The counselor, who assessed Boyles’ mental state in his 2007 methamphetamine case, concluded, “His risk for aggressive behavior could increase substantially if he were to become intoxicated with alcohol or illicit drugs,” court records show.
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