Man's sister talks about finding couple shot to death

Amber Jackson knocked on her brother's front door Thanksgiving Day, expecting to ask why he and his family had not come to his mother's big dinner that afternoon.

Her 4-year-old nephew opened the door.

At first, the boy's words didn't register in her mind.

"My daddy is killed," he said.

Amber Jackson, 20, and her brother, Adrian Jackson, 26, were close.

They had talked by phone about 9 the night before Thanksgiving. Adrian, a local rap musician, said he was going to do some recording at a friend's studio.

Thanksgiving morning, Amber Jackson texted her brother and Jessie Foust, his 25-year-old common-law wife, but got no answer.

Adrian Jackson and Foust had been together for about three years. They met on MySpace, Amber Jackson said.

Foust, who had been a cheerleader at Junction City High School and Cowley College, was about to graduate from Wichita State University.

Adrian Jackson, his 4-year-old son, Foust and the couple's 18-month-old son lived in a white rental house at Chautauqua and Elm, near Central and Hillside. It had a "Welcome" sign out front.

On Thanksgiving afternoon, Amber Jackson and her relatives started eating at 2, without Adrian Jackson and his family.

Amber Jackson rushed through the dinner, confused by her brother's absence.

She told her mother, Iris Jackson, "Man, something's not right. I'm going to check on my bro."

Around 2:30 p.m., she drove the short distance with her 14-year-old sister and went to the door.

When her 4-year-old nephew answered her knock with, "My daddy is killed," she said, "I froze for a second.

"And I just looked down at my brother and ... saw Jessie."

The couple's bodies were in the living room.

She told her sister to grab the boys — they appeared to be uninjured and were wearing pajamas — and take them to another room.

"I knew them seeing me freak out was going to cause them to freak out," she said.

"I was completely stunned.

"I just sat there, and I looked for probably a minute."

She screamed her brother's name.

"I wanted it to be joke," she said.

She called 911 and told the person who answered to send help immediately to 601 N. Chautauqua, and she ran to a neighbor's house and called her mother.

Amber Jackson kept repeating her words to her mother:

"Mom, you need to get over here. I just found Adrian and Jessie ... they are dead. They are both dead. Get here."

She ran back to her brother's living room and checked for signs of life, although she knew it was useless.

Her brother's neck felt cold.

In the following days, Amber Jackson would learn that Samuel Holton, 18, of Mulvane and Trevor Cox, 17, of Wichita had been arrested and charged with murder and robbery in the couple's deaths.

Holton, being held on a $1 million bond, faces a Dec. 15 preliminary hearing, which could be postponed.

Holton's public defender, Christine Jones, said her client, who recently turned 18, should be presumed innocent.

"There is a lot more to this story than is currently public knowledge," Jones said without elaborating.

Cox, being held on a $500,000 bond, faces a hearing in juvenile court Wednesday to determine whether he will be tried as an adult.

A motion for adult prosecution filed in court notes the seriousness of the charges against Cox and says he has a "previous history of antisocial behavior or patterns of physical violence."

Cox's defense attorney could not be reached for comment, and both defendants' relatives have declined to speak to an Eagle reporter.

Police have said it appeared that Adrian Jackson knew the two defendants and that he and one of them had been in a previous transaction involving a gun.

Amber Jackson said she had met Holton and Cox before and said that they and her brother had made music together.

Police have said that the couple's young sons were found wandering around the house, and that the parents apparently had been dead for several hours before their bodies were discovered.

Meanwhile, the 4-year-old is beginning to realize that his parents are "not going to come back," Amber Jackson said.

"I think he is starting to grasp it, but I don't think he's all the way there."

She noted one of the questions he still asks:

"When are they going to fix them?"

This story was originally published December 7, 2009 at 12:00 AM.