‘It Was His Actions That Caused This’: Oklahoma Businessman Blame Black Employee He Allegedly Killed and Buried Under Septic Tank for His Death, After Judge Denies Seventh Appeal
An Oklahoma appeals court upheld the life sentence of a former city councilman and businessman and now-convicted murderer who killed his Black employee and buried him underneath a septic tank.
In 2021, Dan Triplett fatally shot 50-year-old Brent Mack while the pair were installing a septic tank at a property in Mulhall, Oklahoma. Then he buried Mack’s body beneath the concrete tank.
The 70-year-old was found guilty of first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse in February 2023 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Triplett filed seven appeals, naming errors that he claims robbed him of a fair trial. Guthrie News Page reported that among those alleged errors, he claimed that his attorney failed to file for a change of venue to move the trial out of Logan County and failed to introduce specific evidence regarding Brent Mack’s criminal history.
He also claimed that state prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to prove that he desecrated a human corpse and shouldn’t have been allowed to admit evidence of Triplett’s alleged extramarital affairs because they were irrelevant and prejudicial.
A three-judge panel of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his appeal and affirmed his conviction and sentence, according to court documents filed on May 1. The decision ensures that Triplett will remain in prison for the rest of his life.
Mack was reported missing on Sept. 20, 2021. Triplett told investigators that he fired him and paid him a $1,000 severance that day, then dropped Mack off at a laundromat in Guthrie.
However, surveillance footage showed Triplett’s car passing the laundromat but never stopping.
He later changed his story, saying that the last job he and Mack worked was on Sept. 8 in Crescent City. But after investigators obtained warrants to search Triplett’s home and vehicle, they found work logbooks and receipts that betrayed Triplett’s new version of events and revealed that he last worked with Mack on Sept. 20.
And surveillance video from the worksite in Mulhall showed Triplett and Mack entering the property, and only Triplett leaving.
Investigators dug up the septic tank on Oct. 21, 2021, and state anthropologists used a probe to find a body that had a wallet carrying Mack’s ID. The state medical examiner’s office later identified the remains, confirming they belonged to Mack. An autopsy report revealed he died from a gunshot wound to the upper back.
During Triplett’s trial, his attorneys relied on a self-defense argument, claiming that Mack got angry after learning it was his last day on the job and tried to leave the worksite early before the job was finished.
Triplett said they got into a heated argument, and Mack pulled a gun on him first. He said he initially lied to police and Mack’s family because he “freaked out.”
In an impact statement to the court, Mack’s brother Troy Franklin said, “[Triplett] made a mockery of his life. You killed him, making him a missing person and saying ‘well you just have to find him’. Well, we found him. How would you like to go 30 days of not knowing, hours of traveling, searching, then we finally found him. … You have no idea what you have done. I will find out the truth as to why you killed him.”
When Triplett addressed the court, he said, “Yes, I have regret and my condolences to the family, but it was his (Mack’s) actions that caused this tragic death to happen.”