Ardmore Resident Sentenced For Involuntary Manslaughter

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Jonathan Ray Higginbotham, Jr., age 23, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for one count of Involuntary Manslaughter in Indian Country.

The charges arose from investigations by the City of Ardmore Police Department, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On May 18, 2022, Higginbotham was found guilty by a federal jury at trial of Involuntary Manslaughter in Indian Country.  At trial, the United States presented evidence that on January 19, 2021, Higginbotham fired a 9mm Hi-Point carbine, hitting an Ardmore resident.  EMS responders transported the victim to an area hospital where he later died of his injuries.  Higginbotham fled and was apprehended on September 23, 2021.

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

The Honorable Scott L. Palk, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the trial and hearings in Oklahoma City.  Higginbotham 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-paroleable sentence of incarceration.