Former Ada Resident Sentenced For Involuntary Manslaughter

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Heather Lynn Harjo, age 40, formerly of Ada, Oklahoma, was sentenced to thirty-seven months in prison for one count of Involuntary Manslaughter in Indian Country.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Ada Police Department, the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

On October 17, 2026, Harjo pleaded guilty to the charge.  According to investigators, on April 28, 2025, while visiting an Ada residence, Harjo became involved in an altercation and—unreasonably believing herself to be in danger of imminent death or serious bodily injury—pulled a 9mm pistol and fired a single shot, striking and killing the victim.  Harjo fled and was captured eight weeks later on a fugitive arrest warrant in Dallas, Texas.

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

The Honorable John A. Woodcock, Jr., Senior Judge in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, sitting by designation, presided over the hearing in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Harjo will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lewis M. Reagan represented the United States.