Ottawa County woman to be sentenced in death of husband's mistress

MAMI, Okla. — The wife of a convicted double murder felon will learn her fate Tuesday as she appears in Ottawa County District Court for a sentencing hearing.

Charlana Nichelle Kelly, 54, of Miami, pleaded guilty in February to aiding and abetting murder in the death of Toni Moran by providing a false alibi to investigators about her husband.

Moran, 47, also known as Tony Elizabeth Torres, of North Miami and Quapaw, died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body on November 1, 2021.

Tragic, violent lives intersect, resulting in Oklahoma woman's death and man's prison sentence

The sentencing hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Ottawa County Courthouse before District Judge Jennifer McAffre. She faces up to 22 and a half years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Jimmy Kelly Jr., 53, Charlana's husband of more than five years, told federal investigators he had a “relationship” with Moran that made his wife, Charlana, jealous and “arranged a confrontation” between the two women, according to federal court records. .

Jimmy Kelly and Moran had met while both were in prison, Kelly for the murder of a Picher man, and Moran was being held at the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita in connection with the drowning death of her 17-month-old son, Alex.

Investigators believe the plot was for Moran to meet Jimmy Kelly on a rural county road where the town of Picher was located, early in the evening of Halloween 2021. Moran believed it involved the use of methamphetamine, according to a May 31 sentencing memorandum.

Jimmy Kelly was sentenced in June 2023 in U.S. District Court in Tulsa to 303 months, or more than 25 years, for second-degree murder in Indian Country and 120 months, or 10 years, for being a felon in possession of 'a gun, for Moran's crime. brutal murder.

Kelly's new sentences will be concurrent, but will not begin until he has served 57 months for violating the terms of his release from a 1991 murder conviction.

When she died, Moran was homeless after being kicked out of her apartment and had just discovered that her best friend had started a relationship with the man she had had a relationship with, according to court records.

Floyd McKibben, Moran's brother, refuted court records via email and social media posts.

Prison time

In October 2004, Torres was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of her son and was committed to a psychiatric hospital. She was released from the psychiatric hospital seven years later because it was decided she no longer posed a danger.

In 1991, Jimmy Kelly was convicted of murder for beating Vernon C. Moyer, of Picher. Testimony showed that Kelly beat Moyer with a jack and nearly decapitated the man, decimating his neck, throat and voice box. Kelly then dumped the body in a nearby pond.

Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was released on April 30, 2018, where he began serving five years of supervised release, according to court records.

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