Brooke Phillips: Cathouse Star’s Murder, Trial, and Appeals

The Brooke Phillips murder was a 2009 quadruple killing in southwest Oklahoma City in which the 22-year-old star of HBO’s Cathouse was shot, stabbed, and burned alongside three other victims inside a home that her attackers set on fire to hide the crime. Four men were eventually convicted. Three are serving life without the possibility of parole, and one is serving 25 years after cooperating with prosecutors.¹

Who Brooke Phillips Was

Phillips was born on July 27, 1987, in Moore, Oklahoma. By her early twenties she was working at the Moonlite BunnyRanch, a legal brothel near Carson City, Nevada, under the stage name Hayden Brooks. She appeared on HBO’s reality series Cathouse, which documented life at the ranch, and owner Dennis Hof later called her “a big part” of the show.²

She left the BunnyRanch about two months before her death after telling Hof she was pregnant. She was back in Oklahoma when she was killed.³

What Happened on November 9, 2009

On the night of November 9, 2009, firefighters were called to a house fire at 1511 SW 56th Street in Oklahoma City. Inside they found four bodies. The victims were Brooke Phillips, Milagros Barrera (22), Jennifer Lynn Ermey (25), and Casey Mark Barrientos (32). All four had been shot. Phillips had a gunshot wound to the right temple and had also been stabbed and slashed multiple times. Both Phillips and Barrera were pregnant, which later supported two additional murder counts against the defendants.⁴ Arson investigators determined that the fire had been set deliberately to conceal the killings.⁵ Phillips was identified through her distinctive tattoos.

The house was being rented by Jose Fernando Fierro, who escaped the home. He later testified that the group had been drinking and using drugs that night and that he smelled smoke roughly 45 minutes after the gunfire but did not call 911 because he was afraid.⁶

Why They Were Killed

Prosecutors said the killings were ordered by Denny Edward Phillips, a leader in the Indian Brotherhood prison gang who used the title “war chief.” Denny Phillips was not related to Brooke Phillips.¹

According to court filings and testimony, the target was Casey Mark Barrientos. Denny Phillips wanted to take over Barrientos’s drug operation and rob him of more than $100,000 believed to be hidden inside the home. The three women were killed to eliminate witnesses. A prosecution witness, Jose Flores, who had shared a prison cell with Denny Phillips, testified that Phillips bragged about ordering the killings and that the murders also served as a gang initiation for co-defendant David Allen Tyner.⁷

Prosecutors said the attackers shot the victims in their lower bodies first to immobilize them, then finished the women with gunshots to the head before setting the house on fire.⁷ Defense attorneys disputed the motive, arguing Denny Phillips and Barrientos were friends running a profitable drug business together.

The Four Men Convicted

Four men were charged and convicted in connection with the killings.

David Allen Tyner, 28, of Locust Grove, Oklahoma, was identified as a suspect within days. Surveillance video from the night of the murders captured a white Pontiac Grand Prix leaving the area, a vehicle registered to Denny Phillips’s wife.⁸ Tyner turned himself in on November 17, 2009, on a warrant that included six murder complaints.⁹ Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, but in May 2012 he pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to six consecutive life terms without parole.¹⁰ He later testified at trial that he had personally shot Barrientos, Barrera, and Ermey, and that he did not harm Brooke Phillips.¹¹

Denny Edward Phillips, the alleged organizer, was said by prosecutors to have directed the attack by phone from a nearby location. In April 2010, he was shot three times by Tulsa police after allegedly pointing a gun at officers during a motel confrontation and later received a seven-year federal sentence tied to that shootout.¹² In August 2012, while in federal prison, he was charged in Oklahoma County with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy.⁸

Russell Lee Hogshooter was identified by prosecutors as the man who directly killed Brooke Phillips at the scene. He was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy.¹¹

Jonathan Allen Cochran was arrested in November 2014 after Tyner provided investigators with additional information. Cochran pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on February 27, 2015. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said the victims’ families agreed to the 25-year sentence in order to secure Cochran’s testimony against Hogshooter and Denny Phillips.¹³

How Brooke Phillips Died, According to Trial Testimony

At the 2016 trial of Hogshooter and Denny Phillips, Cochran gave detailed testimony about what happened inside the house. He said the three men went there on what he called a “murder mission” organized by Denny Phillips. Cochran initially told prosecutors he thought the group was going to commit a robbery, but under questioning he acknowledged he knew people were going to be killed, though he claimed he “didn’t verbally agree to kill anybody.”¹¹

Cochran testified that when he entered the house he saw three bodies and watched Tyner pull a knife from a victim’s throat. He then saw Hogshooter holding a bloody, screaming woman by her hair. That woman was Brooke Phillips. Cochran said Hogshooter ordered him to shoot her; he fired twice but claimed he missed on purpose, then told Hogshooter he was out of bullets. According to Cochran, Hogshooter then set the house on fire, and Phillips “was still screaming when he poured gas on her.”¹¹

Trial Verdict and Sentences

On June 13, 2016, an Oklahoma County jury convicted both Hogshooter and Denny Phillips on six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy.¹⁴ Jurors handed down 35 years for the conspiracy charge. On the murder counts, the jury weighed life in prison, life without parole, and the death penalty. On June 17, 2016, they recommended life without the possibility of parole for both defendants.¹⁵

Appeals and Where the Case Stands

Both men appealed to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Hogshooter argued that trial evidence, including photographs of the victims, was improper, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and that he should have been tried separately from Denny Phillips. Both defendants also challenged limits the trial court placed on cross-examination about a co-defendant’s military mental health records.¹⁶

On July 23, 2020, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected every argument and upheld the convictions and sentences.¹⁷ Hogshooter, Denny Phillips, and Tyner are each serving six life terms without parole. Cochran is serving 25 years.¹

1
KSAT. Convictions, Life Sentences Upheld in Cathouse Slayings
2
News 9. Bunny Ranch Owner Speaks Out About OKC Cathouse Murder Trial Verdict
3
Nevada Appeal. Brothel Owner Fears Employee Killed in Okla. Fire
4
CBS News. Brooke Phillips: Cathouse Star Murdered
5
The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City Police Name Suspect in Fatal Shootings, Fire
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KOCO. Cathouse Trial: Man Admits to Not Calling 911 After Fire
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The Oklahoman. Ex-Prison Cellmate Testifies He Was Told Details of Cathouse Slayings
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News 9. Tulsa Man Charged in OKC Cathouse Murders
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CBS News. Suspect in Custody for Cathouse Brothel Star Brooke Phillips Murder
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News 9. Man Accused in Cathouse Star Murders Pleads Guilty
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The Oklahoman. Convicted Oklahoma Killer Details What Happened in Cathouse Slayings
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Amarillo Globe-News. Affidavit: Man Who Allegedly Killed Cathouse Prostitute, Three Others Told Details
13
Las Vegas Sun. Man Sentenced 25 Years in Oklahoma Cathouse Killings
14
The Oklahoman. Jurors Begin Deliberating Whether to Choose Death Penalty for Men They Already Convicted in Cathouse Slayings
15
Reno Gazette Journal. Hof Hoping for Death Penalty in Cathouse Murder Case
16
Seattle Times. Convictions, Life Sentences Upheld in Cathouse Slayings
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Washington Post. Convictions, Life Sentences Upheld in Cathouse Slayings