Back in August, the girls discovered blue pressed pills in their desert after leaving an ice cream shop with Yokeley. The Wilmington Police Department field tested the pills and they came back positive for MDMA and cocaine.
As a result, Yokely was charged with felony child abuse and two counts of contaminating food/drink. The court set a $100,000 secured bond, under the condition that he have no contact with the victims.
But, according to a motion filed by Assistant District Attorney Lance Oehrlein, Yokely attempted to contact his step-granddaughter after being released from custody.
Oehrlein requested that the conditions of Yokely’s bond be modified, and his secured bond be significantly increased. He also asked that Yokely be placed on electronic monitoring and have no contact with any minors.
The evidence presented during Tuesday’s hearing included screenshots showing text messages sent from his wife, Jan Yokeley, to their granddaughter. There were also screenshots of Yokeley at the victim’s residence — a clear violation of his bond — that were grabbed from the family’s ring camera footage.
Prosecutors also had reason to believe Yokeley himself was behind one particular message sent from his wife’s phone on Aug. 26, the date Yokeley bonded out of custody.
The message raised questions because it included the word “honey” — a term of endearment commonly used by Yokeley when referring to his step-granddaughter. Further, Yokeley was no longer in possession of his cellphone after his release, and the new one he ordered wasn’t expected to arrive until three days later, Jan Yokeley confirmed.
Their granddaughter took a screenshot of the message and sent it to her grandmother on Sept. 3 asking whether or not the message was written by her.
Jan Yokeley texted back, “I didn’t send that.”
A slightly different picture was painted when Yokeley’s wife was called to the stand.
According to Jan Yokeley, she thought she was responding to an earlier text sent in August, in which her granddaughter asked to meet up and discuss what happened to her.
Mrs. Yokeley told the court she had no intention to hear her granddaughter out, and that’s why she sent that response.
“This woman’s testimony is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard,” Assistant DA Lance Oehrlein said. “It’s clear [Yokeley] sent that text.”
As for the ring camera footage, Jan Yokeley testified that she and her husband were clearing their Dobson home in preparation of a home improvement project. They collected bins full of old pictures and mementos belonging to Jan Yokeley’s daughter that needed to be moved out in time for the renovation.
She coordinated with her daughter to have the belongings dropped off at a time when no one, especially the granddaughter, would be home.
Because of injuries she sustained from a car accident some time ago, Jan Yokeley said she asked her husband to help drop off the bins “at the last minute.”
Jan Yokeley confessed that it was originally her idea and that she didn’t think anything of it since they were planning to be gone before her granddaughter would return from school; and she pushed Yokeley to go even though he expressed his discomfort with that idea, she said.
Oehrlein said whether or not they were only there to drop the items off, knowing the victim would not be home, they knew that no contact meant no contact.
“That’s close to witness intimidation,” he said.
For those reasons, Oehrlein asked that Yokeley’s bond amount be doubled.
Eric Howland, Yokeley’s defense attorney, pointed out that the couple could have hired movers, and reiterated that Yokeley’s wife didn’t think she was doing anything wrong by asking her husband to assist her.
“This is not anything with any malicious intent,” Howland said. “[It’s] sort of a mea culpa, and they need to learn from that.”
Judge Robin Robinson denied the request to increase Yokeley’s secured bond, though she did rule that he must be placed under electronic monitoring for the remainder of his pretrial release.
Robinson also ordered that Yokeley’s bond conditions specify that he would not be allowed near the victims’ homes, place of employment or school to avoid further confusion in the future.
