Okmulgee Resident Sentenced For First Degree Murder

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Elijha Dewayne Taylor, age 34, of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder.  Taylor was also sentenced to ten years imprisonment consecutive to his life term for a federal firearms violation.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Muskogee Police Department, the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On April 23, 2024, Taylor was found guilty by a federal jury of first degree murder and a federal firearms violation.  According to investigators, on March 4, 2023, Taylor approached a Muskogee apartment building, entered an apartment, then intentionally shot the victim in the back of the head with a .22 firearm before fleeing.  The victim later died at an area hospital.  The crimes occurred in Muskogee County, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Keith Starrett, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing in Muskogee.  Taylor 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.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard J. Lorenz and Gregory Dean Burris represented the United States.