Coal County Resident Pleads Guilty To Voluntary Manslaughter

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Ronald Wayne Yarbrough, Jr., age 45, of Lehigh, Oklahoma, entered a guilty plea to an Information charging him with Voluntary Manslaughter in Indian Country.

The Information alleged that on November 24, 2022, Yarbrough instigated a fight outside the family home.  During the fight, Yarbrough stabbed the victim in the neck.  The victim was later declared dead at an area hospital.  The crime occurred in Coal County, within the boundaries of the Choctaw Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Honorable Jason A. Robertson, U.S. Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, accepted the plea in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and ordered the completion of a presentence investigation report.  Yarbrough will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending sentencing.

Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Howanitz represented the United States.