Naman Shrestha
When Thomas “Tom” Randolph was linked to the killing of his sixth wife, Sharon Randolph, in 2008, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Detective Dean O’Kelley was the lead investigator of the case. During his investigation, he came across several discrepancies and inconsistencies in Thomas’ story, leading him to dig deeper into the suspect’s life. Dean features in Netflix’s ‘The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part,’ a true-crime documentary film, as he recounts the details of the complicated homicide and how he apprehended Thomas Randolph.
Dean O’Kelley Played a Crucial Role in Collecting Incriminating Evidence Against Thomas Randolph
Starting in 2008, the murder investigation of Sharon Randolph in Las Vegas, Nevada, was led by Detective Dean O’Kelley, who interviewed her husband, Thomas “Tom” Randolph. During the reenactment of the incident, Thomas claimed that he fired multiple shots at Mike Miller in the hallway of his home after he found Sharon lying dead on the floor. However, upon closer inspection, Dean noticed that the physical evidence at the crime scene didn’t corroborate the husband’s version of events. He believed that Thomas hired Mike to kill his wife, after which he killed the hitman himself. As he and his partner presented the prosecutors with the circumstantial evidence they found against Thomas, the prosecutors didn’t believe it was enough to get a conviction.
In the months that followed, Dean traveled to different states to gather statements from potential witnesses and obtain an arrest warrant for the suspect. Finally, in January 2009, the detective arrested Thomas and charged him with the killings of Sharon and Mike. Since the accused kept firing his defense attorneys, the trial date got postponed multiple times. In between, Dean retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. In the documentary, he stated, “He (Thomas) knew how the system worked, there’s no question about that. And like everything else he did, he knew how to manipulate things, too.” Eventually, Thomas was convicted twice and sentenced to 60 years to life in prison.
Dean O’Kelley Served as a Witness in the Tupac Shakur Murder Case in 2026
Dean O’Kelley began his career in the Gang Unit of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in May 1996. After years of hard work and sheer determination, he got promoted to the Homicide Division in July 2003. While Dean served as a homicide detective, he not only solved multiple criminal cases but also made appearances on quite a few true crime documentary shows, such as ‘The First 48’ and ‘Cops’ in 2005, ’48 Hours’ in 2008, and ‘Snapped’ in 2011. After his retirement in July 2012, Dean has been serving as the Regional Vice President of ACN since November 2013.
In 2015, he returned to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and has been working as a Cold Case Investigator since then. He also continued his work on documentaries, featuring in ‘Las Vegas Law,’ ‘Dateline NBC,’ ‘Snapped: Killer Couples,’ ‘Mean Girl Murders,’ ‘Sin City Murders,’ ‘The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph,’ and more. The Las Vegas, Nevada, resident prefers not to reveal details of his personal life. On the professional front, in August 2026, the Cold Case Investigator took the stand as a witness during the murder trial of Duane Davis in connection with the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur. At the time of the tragedy, Dean was one of the LVMPD Gang Unit officers at the scene.
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