Vian Resident Sentenced For Aggravated Sexual Abuse Of A Child In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Joshua Thomas Smith, age 41, of Vian, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 360 months in prison for Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Minor in Indian Country.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On June 30, 2022, a federal jury found Smith guilty at trial of Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child in Indian Country.  During the trial, the United States presented evidence that Joshua Thomas Smith sexually abused a child under the age of twelve from December of 2017 through March of 2018.

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

The Honorable Bernard M. Jones, II, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, presided by assignment over the hearing in Muskogee.  Thomas will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve his non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney Edith A. Singer represented the United States.