Cherokee County Resident Sentenced For Manslaughter In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announces that James Mounce, age 49, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment for Manslaughter in Indian Country.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Grand River Dam Authority.

On May 19, 2022, Mounce pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in Indian Country.  According to court documents, on September 8, 2019, Mounce got into a fight with the victim.  Mounce went to the home of a nearby acquaintance, obtained a shotgun, returned to the victim’s location, and shot and killed the victim.

The crime occurred in Cherokee County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable John F. Heil, III, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the sentencing hearing in Muskogee.  Mounce will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney T. Cameron McEwen represented the United States at sentencing.