Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — A federal appeals court has rejected an Oklahoma inmate’s request to challenge his return from Kentucky to serve multiple life sentences. Michael St. Clair was convicted of murder in Oklahoma but escaped before sentencing. While on the run, he committed more crimes in Kentucky and was sentenced to death there. In 1995, Oklahoma and Kentucky governors signed an agreement stating that St. Clair would only be returned to Oklahoma if he was not sentenced to death. After his death sentences in Kentucky were later reduced, he was sent back to Oklahoma in 2018 to serve four consecutive life terms. In 2023, St. Clair filed a federal petition claiming that his return violated the states’ agreement and his constitutional rights. A federal judge dismissed the case, sa...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the convictions of Cameron Watkins, also known as “Crazy Gun,” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The case centered on whether a police officer’s act of peering through a one-inch gap in a motel room curtain constituted an unlawful search under the Fourth Amendment. According to court records, police were investigating a violent carjacking that occurred in an Oklahoma City motel parking lot on October 8, 2021. A motel manager directed officers to Room 231, where a man matching the suspect’s description was believed to be staying. Officer Michael McNally stood on the motel's open-air walkway and looked through a one-inch opening in the room’s window cu...

(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK) October 8, 2025 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed the appeal of Alfredo Joaquin Soto, who was sentenced to 210 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Soto, also known as Joaquin Alfredo Soto, entered a plea agreement in the Western District of Oklahoma admitting to possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The agreement included a waiver of his right to appeal. The government moved to enforce that waiver, and Soto’s counsel acknowledged it was valid. After reviewing the record, the Tenth Circuit agreed, finding the appeal waiver was knowingly and voluntarily made and that enforcing it would not result in a miscarriage of justice. Th...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Jeff Weng, who was found guilty of running a large illegal marijuana grow in Wetumka, Oklahoma, where nearly 20,000 plants were seized by federal authorities. Weng, who managed the operation, was convicted alongside his cousin, Tong Lin, of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants. Lin previously appealed his conviction, which was also upheld. In his appeal, Weng argued that the trial court made mistakes by blocking evidence that the grow may have followed Oklahoma’s marijuana laws, and by allegedly allowing a conviction without enough proof that the plants were marijuana or that he was part of a conspiracy. He also asked the court to consider the same arguments his cous...

MCINTOSH COUNTY, OK – A McIntosh County man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for the second time for the 2013 murder of a Checotah woman he had previously dated. David Deval Martin, 40, was convicted in October 2024 of murder in Indian Country after a federal jury found him guilty. The federal prosecution followed a Supreme Court decision requiring the case to be retried in U.S. District Court due to jurisdictional issues stemming from McGirt v. Oklahoma. Martin was originally convicted in state court in 2016 and sentenced to life without parole, but that conviction was vacated following the Supreme Court ruling. According to court records, Martin beat and stabbed the victim on November 7, 2013, inflicting more than 100 injuries to her head and neck. The medical ex...

TULSA, OK – A criminal complaint was unsealed today against a Tulsa man who allegedly attempted to provide 3-D printed weapons and firearm components to an individual he believed was associated with al-Qaida, according to federal prosecutors. Andrew Scott Hastings, 25, is charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and with the illegal possession or transfer of a machinegun. According to court documents, in June 2024, the FBI became aware that Hastings was using a social media app to discuss violent acts against U.S. civilians in support of global jihad. Hastings, who was then enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard and held a national security clearance, allegedly failed to report international travel as required and made s...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Braden Birdsong, 28, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to a federal hate crime for attacking a Black man while using racial slurs. According to court records and statements made during the hearing, the assault occurred on August 25, 2023, while the victim, identified as D.G., was cleaning the parking lot of the restaurant where he worked. Birdsong, a white man, approached and repeatedly punched D.G. in the head while yelling racial slurs and anti-Black rhetoric. The victim sustained bodily injuries as a result of the assault. Birdsong admitted in court that he committed the attack because of D.G.’s race and color. Birdsong faces up to 10 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Bernard M....