GUILTY MT - Jeremy Forquer, 19, & Bryce Chavers, 16, murdered, Campbell County, 2005

Gillette man whose sexual assault trial has been delayed due to the murder of a witness is now accused of arranging the teenager's death.

Kent Alan Proffit, Sr., 42, was charged Wednesday with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Christopher Robert Hicks and Jacob Paul Martinez, both 19, were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for allegedly killing Bryce Chavers, 16.

Chavers' mother found him dead in his bed the morning of Nov. 26. He had a single gunshot to the head, according to investigators.

Chavers was scheduled to testify in Proffit's Dec. 12 trial on eight counts of third-degree sexual assault of a minor.

On Wednesday, Martinez allegedly told Campbell County Sheriff's investigator Steve Hamilton that Proffit asked Martinez and Hicks to kill Chavers and they agreed.

Martinez allegedly said they refused at first, but feared retribution from a drug distributor for a botched marijuana deal. Martinez said Proffit had intervened with the distributor to protect them, according to the affidavit filed by Hamilton.
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/.../wyoming/c02c043fb23a3adb872570df0072fe33.txt

Kent Proffit Sr., who is charged with arranging the murder of a teenager scheduled to testify at his sex crimes trial, was charged Saturday in the death of another man whose body was found a day earlier along Interstate 90 in Johnson County.

Campbell County prosecutors have filed first-degree murder and conspiracy charges against Proffit, 42, in the October slaying of Jeremy Forquer, 19, in Gillette.

Proffit was arrested Wednesday in Sheridan and charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Bryce Chavers, 16, who was found shot to death in his home on Nov. 26.

Chavers had been scheduled to testify at Proffit's Dec. 12 trial on eight counts of sexual assault of a minor.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/12/24/news/ab5f8a19f5275e1d872570e1007c2f54.txt

Police arrested Proffit on Wednesday in Sheridan and charged him with conspiracy to commit murder in last month's slaying of 16 year old Bryce Chavers.

Two 19 year-olds, Jacob Martinez and Christopher Hicks, were also charged this week with murdering Chavers in his bedroom.

After his arrest, Martinez told investigators he had information on a previous murder, and led authorities to Forquer's body along Interstate 90 in Johnson County.

Martinez told investigators that he and Hicks strangled Forquer at Proffit's residence. Martinez and Hicks also face first-degree murder charges in Forquer's death.
http://www.kgwn.tv/home/headlines/2116272.html

I guess I'll post this here, since they also had something to do with this poor young man's death

Missing person cases difficult for police

Jeremy Forquer was expected to visit his parents in Missouri at the end of October.

When the 19-year-old failed to show up by Nov. 4, his father, Clinton Forquer, called Gillette Police and asked for help finding his son.

Officers knocked on Forquer's door and called his home, but officials remained unaware that he'd been murdered until Dec. 23, when a suspect in a separate murder case told deputies about killing Forquer.

In Forquer's case, an officer knocked on his home but no one answered. When the officer called back later, an unknown woman answered the phone and said that he'd left for Missouri as he told his father.

No further investigation was done, which some have questioned since Forquer later turned up dead.

More: http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2005/12/29/news/news2.txt

Wanna bet the hit-men were also former victims of this perv who he coerced into killing the other wittnesses/victims because it would become public knowledge they had been molested as well and everyone would "know" they were gay?

This reminds me a lot of the Heath Stocks family massacre in Lonoke, Arkansas of several years back.

Tammy Porter and Kent Proffit Jr. are remarkably composed for two people going through hell.

Sitting inside a local dealership where the mother and son work together, their voices are strong, eyes steady and minds quick. Porter sits upright, answering questions in a matter-of-fact tone. Proffit, called “Bubba” by those who know him, reclines back in a chair, adopting the laconic mask of a too-cool teenager.

Beneath this calm veneer, however, are two people shaken by the murder of their 16-year-old son and brother and accusations that Proffit's father, Porter's ex-husband, ordered his son's roommates to kill the boy to dodge a sexual assault trial.

Life changed for Porter and Proffit on Nov. 26.

On that day, Porter went to wake her 16-year-old son Bryce Chavers but found him dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Deputies charged Christopher Robert Hicks and Jacob Paul Martinez, both 19, with the killing Dec. 19. The following day, Kent Alan Proffit Sr. was arrested in Sheridan on suspicion of asking the men to kill Chavers and coaching them on how to get away with the murder. Michael Seiser, 15, is charged with conspiracy in the case, and is accused of driving Hicks and Martinez to Chavers' home.

Chavers had celebrated his 16th birthday just a little more than a month before he was killed. He had just gotten his license and first car, a 1989 Ford Tempo. Three girls at school were interested in him. And he was about to be bumped up to high school after being held behind a year.

Chavers' relationship with his brother's father, Proffit Sr., is more murky. Proffit was once married to Porter and is Chavers' one-time stepfather. He came back from Missouri to be close to Bubba and planned to live with Porter and Chavers until he could get a place of his own, said Terry Proffit, his brother.

Bubba Proffit said his father had a good relationship with both boys and looked out for them. He remembers frequent camping and fishing trips that he went on with his father, where the two had a chance to get close.

“He's always been there for the both of us, kept us out of trouble,” Proffit said.
http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2005/12/28/news/news02.txt

Jeremy Forquer was expected to visit his parents in Missouri at the end of October.

When the 19-year-old failed to show up by Nov. 4, his father, Clinton Forquer, called Gillette Police and asked for help finding his son.

Officers knocked on Forquer's door and called his home, but officials remained unaware that he'd been murdered until Dec. 23, when a suspect in a separate murder case told deputies about killing Forquer.

In Forquer's case, an officer knocked on his home but no one answered. When the officer called back later, an unknown woman answered the phone and said that he'd left for Missouri as he told his father.

No further investigation was done, which some have questioned since Forquer later turned up dead.

But Gillette police said they did all they could.

Gillette police say adult missing person reports are among the hardest cases to investigate. Officers take down the information, look in the missing person's usual haunts, searching for suspicious activity, and then send out a statewide teletype with his or her information, but there is often little else they can do track a person down, said Lt. Noland Peacock.

“We're willing to follow up on everything we have based on the resources we have and the information we're getting,” Police Chief Rich Adriaens said.

Part of the problem is that officers often don't know if a person is missing or just out of touch. Some actually want to disappear, as when a husband or wife leaves after an argument, Peacock said.

“Typically, most of them, when they turn up missing they go missing intentionally,” he said.
http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2005/12/29/news/news2.txt

http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...cle_e1e35148-11f6-53d3-895c-2ece55d42eda.html

Proffitt is surprised he was found guilty.

http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/article_46f89ee7-60b1-5588-8ee2-a31b69d6b6d7.html

Hick' s convictions in Chavers murder and conspiracy to murder in Furquers death were upheld by the Wyoming Supreme Court.