Three Oklahoma sisters have been sentenced to federal prison for plotting to kill to a man and his wife outside a rural Walker County convenience store nearly three years ago.
Tierzah Mapson, 29, Elisa Mapson, 25, and Charis Mapson, 33, devised an elaborate conspiracy that read like a made-for-television movie with binoculars, disguises, secret campsites, “good luck beads” and lies – lots of them. The plan, according to FBI authorities, was to coax the father of Tierzah Mapson’s baby and his new wife to Alabama to meet at a place under the guise of a visitation exchange but instead to shoot and kill them.
A federal jury in July 2021 convicted the sisters of various crimes related to shots fired at Tierzah Mapson’s ex and his wife, according to a joint announcement Friday by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr.
Tierzah Mapson was sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiracy to commit interstate stalking and discharging of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, two counts of interstate domestic violence and two counts of interstate stalking.
Elisa Mapson and Charis Mapson each were sentenced to 120 months in prison for conspiracy to commit interstate stalking and discharging of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and two counts of stalking.
Testimony at trial showed that Tierzah Mapson and the male victim had a child together in 2013.
The sisters’ plot called for a death date of June 18, 2018, near a church on Highway 13 in Eldridge, Ala., a small, rural Walker County community about two miles from Interstate 22 and 22 miles northwest of Jasper.
On that date, feds said, there were more than 150 texts and phone calls between the three sisters, including words of encouragement about what was to come. “It’s just a Halo,’’ Elisa Mapson texted Charis Mapson at one point, an apparent reference to a first-person shooter video game.
Agents noted in their original charging documents that Charis Mapson served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2007 through 2011 “during which she was required to demonstrate a certain skill level in rifle marksmanship.”
Testimony and evidence established that the couple drove to Alabama on June 18th, believing that Tierzah Mapson and the child were driving from Oklahoma.
While they waited at the store for over four hours, they received text messages from Tierzah Mapson explaining delays in her travel.
While Elisa Mapson and Charis Mapson were traveling, Tierzah Mapson was texting her ex, keeping up the guise that she was coming to Alabama from Oklahoma to meet him. Investigators found notes on Elisa’s phone that listed: “disguises, ladder, climbing rope, binoculars, ‘write down what to text Thorn,’ luck beads, bless and luck, gloves and ‘after avoid Ala.’’
At some point, the FBI noted, they installed black stripes on Tierzah’s white 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck to alter its appearance.
Around 5:40p.m, the victims heard shots, one of which came through the trunk of their car, hitting the child’s father in the shoulder and lodging in his chest. Store security video showed that as he made two attempts to get out of the car, additional shots hit the ground on his side of the vehicle.
After the two took cover inside the store, the shooting stopped.
The wounded father was later transported to a Tuscaloosa hospital where his wound was treated and determined to be non-life-threatening. It was later determined that the shots were fired by a rifle from a wooded hill behind a nearby church.
“These convictions are the result of a collaborative effort by a multitude of agencies, both here and outside the district,” Escalona said. “I commend all those who were involved in bringing these defendants to justice.”
The FBI North Alabama Violent Crime Task Force and the Walker County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case with assistance from the Walker County District Attorney’s Office, the Orlando, Tulsa, and Eureka-Fortuna offices of the FBI, the Orlando Police Department, the Hoover Police Department, the Tennessee Valley Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, and the FBI Electronic Device Analysis Unit at Quantico, Virginia.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alan Baty and Jonathan Cross prosecuted the charges
“I applaud the sentences handed down today, as the Mapsons showed no regard for human life as they carried out their conspiracy,” Sharp said. “This case is a perfect example of how law enforcement can combine resources and efforts to bring violent criminals to justice.”
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