MUSKOGEE – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Xavier Sean Wilson, 23, of Park Hill, was sentenced to 480 months in prison for Murder in Indian Country – Second Degree.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office, and the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.

On Oct. 4, 2023, Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of Information charging him with Murder in Indian Country— Second Degree. According to investigators, on April 30, 2022, Wilson assaulted and killed the victim with a knife inside the victim’s home. The crime occurred in Cherokee County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

“The penalty imposed by the court today reflects the gravity of the crime,” said FBI Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Doug Goodwater. “Thanks to the efforts of the FBI and our law enforcement partners, the defendant will now be held accountable for his actions. The FBI is firmly committed to combating violent crime in Indian country and we hope this brings some measure of closure to the community.”

“The defendant’s shattering act of violence took the life of the victim, meriting the sentence handed down today,” said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. “Nothing makes up for the horror of such a crime, or for the sudden loss experienced within a family and a community. But it is my hope that the sentence handed down allows a measure of justice and safety to allow the family and community to confront its grief.”

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 hearing. Wilson will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-parolable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney Edith Singer represented the United States.