Spiro Resident Sentenced For Manslaughter

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Hunter Caleb Spence, age 20, of Spiro, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 42 months for manslaughter.

The charges arose from investigations by the Poteau Police Department, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On March 9, 2022, Spence pleaded guilty to a Superseding Indictment charging him with one count of Manslaughter in Indian Country for killing another while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of one or more intoxicating substances.

On October 28, 2020, Spence flipped his car on US Highway 270, near Wister, Oklahoma while attempting to pass another vehicle.  A passenger in Spence’s vehicle was ejected and died.  Spence admitted to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper investigating the scene that he had smoked marijuana prior to the crash.  Blood tests confirmed the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in his system.  The crime occurred in Leflore County, within the boundaries of the Choctaw Nation Reservation and within the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Charles B. Goodwin, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing in Oklahoma City.  Spence will remain in 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 United States Attorney Joshua Satter represented the United States at the sentencing.