It’s been more than five years since Kore Bommeli was arrested and charged with killing her roommate, Talina Galloway. Talina went missing in Wagoner, Oklahoma, in spring 2020. “Dateline” featured her story in May 2020 in its “Missing in America” series. In January 2021, following the discovery of Talina’s remains in Polk County, Arkansas, Bommeli was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse.
The trial was set to begin in an Oklahoma courtroom this week. Instead, last Friday, Bommeli accepted a last-minute plea deal, pleading no contest to a lesser charge of manslaughter, desecration of a human corpse and possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction.
Bommeli’s legal co-counsel, Bryan Cannonie, spoke to NBC affiliate KJRH of Tulsa after the plea was entered. “Kore is steadfast in her claim that she did not do this,” he said. “I think we even told the DA we did not believe that Miss Bommeli would enter any plea to the case. We thought we were going to trial.”
KJRH also spoke with District Attorney Jack Thorp. “We provided them with a plea offer after we had checked with the family to make sure that that’s something that they were good with; they were,” Thorp said. “I think that they wanted to see this case finally come to a conclusion.”
Bommeli is already serving 35 years in Wisconsin for attempted murder in a separate incident. In Oklahoma, Bommeli was sentenced to 28 years, with credit for time served since 2021, on the manslaughter charge to be served concurrently with her Wisconsin sentence. She was also sentenced to five years on the weapons charge, to be served concurrently, and seven years for desecration of a human corpse, to be served consecutively to the Wisconsin sentence.
“Our hopes are that she spends all her time in custody behind bars, and she thinks about the harm, the pain that she caused,” the district attorney told KJRH.
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