Muldrow Resident Sentenced For Child Abuse

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that James Dean Bledsoe, age 32, of Muldrow, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for three counts of Child Abuse in Indian Country.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Muldrow Police Department.

On March 12, 2025, Bledsoe pleaded guilty to the charges.  According to investigators, between January 1, 2024, and September 24, 2024, Bledsoe restrained and covered the faces of three children entrusted to his care, causing them to be unable to breathe.  Bledsoe also punished the children by spraying them with cold water and withholding food.  The crimes occurred in Sequoyah County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Bledsoe 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 Emily Wittlinger represented the United States.