Okfuskee County Residents Sentenced For Child Abuse, Child Neglect, And Maiming

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Daniel Levi Magness, age 36, of Okemah, Oklahoma, and Joanna Lee Higgins, age 33, of Okemah, Oklahoma, were sentenced for charges relating to child abuse and neglect.

Magness was sentenced to 220 months in prison for two counts of Child Abuse in Indian Country and one count of Child Neglect in Indian Country. Magness was also sentenced to 63 months for one count of Maiming in Indian Country and one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm.  The Court ordered the terms to be served concurrently for a total of 220 months.  Magness entered a guilty plea to the charges on October 15, 2024.

Higgins was sentenced to 140 months in prison for one count of Child Neglect in Indian Country.  Higgins pleaded guilty to the charge on November 12, 2024.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to investigators, on January 31, 2024, officers responded to a call for a welfare check at an Okemah residence and discovered two minor children in the defendants’ care living in unsanitary conditions and covered in bruises.  One child was suffering from a visible disfiguring injury to one ear.  A search of the home recovered a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, a bolt-action rifle, and a shotgun despite Magness having been previously convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment.  Investigators determined that Magness and Higgins had perpetrated their abuse and neglect on the children for over a year.

The crimes occurred in Okfuskee County, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) 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.  The defendants 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 Nicole Paladino represented the United States.