Fort Towson Resident Sentenced For Voluntary Manslaughter In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Shonda Lynette Johnson, age 52, of Fort Towson, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 135 months in prison for Voluntary Manslaughter in Indian Country.

The charges arose from investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Choctaw County Sheriff’s Office.

On September 29, 2022, a federal jury convicted Johnson at trial of Voluntary Manslaughter in Indian Country. At trial, the United States presented evidence that on November 17, 2019, Johnson confronted the victim, struck him in the head with a blunt instrument, fatally stabbed him in the abdomen, and waited over 45 minutes to call for medical assistance. The crime occurred in Choctaw County, within the boundaries of the Choctaw Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearings in Muskogee. Johnson 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 Jordan Howanitz represented the United States.