Seminole Resident Sentenced For Accessory After The Fact To Murder In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Scott William Lanham, age 45, of Seminole, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for one count of Accessory After the Fact to Murder in Indian Country.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Seminole Police Department, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Texas Rangers, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On March 4, 2024, Lanham pleaded guilty to the charge.  According to court documents, in April of 2019, after the murder of an area Seminole resident, Lanham knowingly helped one of the perpetrators cover up the crime, disposing of a murder weapon and destroying evidence in order to hinder and prevent arrest and prosecution.  Despite Lanham’s efforts, the Government investigated and prosecuted the crime, and on April 10, 2023, a federal jury convicted Coker Dean Barker for murder.

The crimes occurred in Seminole County, within the boundaries of the Seminole Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable John Heil, III, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Lanham 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 Kevin Gross represented the United States.