Stilwell Resident Sentenced For Second Degree Murder In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announces that Darrell James Hummingbird, age 39, of Stilwell, Oklahoma, was sentenced today to 262 months in prison for Second Degree Murder in Indian Country.

The charges arose from investigations by the Stilwell Police Department, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On July 18, 2022, Hummingbird pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder in Indian Country.  According to court documents, on April 26, 2021, the victim was beaten to death in his Stilwell apartment with a metal baseball bat.  Hummingbird attempted to cover up the crime, but investigators recovered incriminating DNA evidence from the murder weapon and Hummingbird’s shoes.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma prosecuted this case because the defendant is a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe and the crime occurred in Indian County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation and within the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable David C. Joseph, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, sitting by designation, presided over the hearing in Muskogee.  Hummingbird 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 Kevin Gross represented the United States.