TEXAS COUNTY, OH – During a preliminary trial, two defendants who are alleged members of the anti-government group known as “God’s Misfits,” and have been accused of murdering two Kansas women in 2024, shared testimony of the murders.

Paul Grice, 32, and Cora Twombly, 45, each face a slew of charges but agreed to plea deals for their testimony in December 2024, according to Law & Crime.

The judge overseeing the case could still deny those plea deals if the defendants do not cooperate with prosecutors.

Transcripts of what Grice and Twombly told the court were recently placed on the public docket in a related wrongful death civil case brought by the heir and estate of one of the victims.

The transcript is of the preliminary trial in the murders of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley.

Grice said he would not receive the death penalty in exchange for his testimony and Twombly’s plea deal includes her testifying in the trial, and she would then serve 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

“Will you tell the court what your understanding is of what you’re receiving in exchange for being here and testifying today for the State,” the judge asked Grice during the hearing.

“To get off the death penalty,” Grice replied. The pair recalled how the five charged defendants started off as “just friends hanging out” and then regularly met as members of a prayer group that became a private member association.

The hearings went into details describing Tifany Adams recruiting both Twombly and Grice into the plan after describing in graphic detail the abuse of Butler’s children by the hands of a family member.

Adams began to complain about the custody situation involving her grandchildren, alleging that the minors were around drugs because of her son and casting aspersions about the “parenting abilities in general.”

Butler was on supervised visitation with her children after accusations. The custody dispute was eventually want led to the bloody and brutal murders of Butler and Kelley.

The Kansas women left home in late March 2024 to pick up Butler’s children in rural Oklahoma but never returned. Their bodies were found buried in an underground freezer on April 14, 2024.

In the testimony, Grice and Twombly described Adams asked them to be involved in the murders, the prep, and the day of the murders.

The documents lay out each of the defendants’ roles on the day, with Twombly being the lookout, Grice and Cullum killing the woman, and Adams cleaning up and supervising.

To further justify the planned-out violent, Adams used religion, specifically the Christian Bible, the defendant said during the hearing. “She had a couple verses,” Grice told the state.

Twombly said she arrived to a more chaotic crime scene than expected, with one of the co-defendants chasing one of the victims.

There, she said she also saw Grice pleading for help as he killed the women.

Grice, for his part, admitted to killing Butler with a hammer and then killing Kelley with a knife, but told prosecutors he felt that he had been set up to be the only person “with blood on his hands.”

A prosecutor asked about the aftermath of the first murder. “Going back to Tifany coming over there while you have Veronica on the ground. What is Tifany doing?”

“Walking a circle around us laughing. It was the most evil laugh I ever heard,” Grice said.

“The next hearing in the case is related to the testing of evidence that could destroy or damage certain materials. That hearing is scheduled for July 30th.