Springer Residents Sentenced For Federal Firearms Crimes

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Cord Sikes Hutchins, age 43, and David Colbert Johnston, age 65, both of Springer, Oklahoma, were sentenced in federal district court.

Hutchins was sentenced to 46 months in prison for one count of Felon in Possession of Firearm and Ammunition.  Hutchins pleaded guilty to the charges on April 24, 2024.

Johnston was sentenced to 24 months in prison for one count of Felon in Possession of Firearm.  Johnston was found guilty by a federal jury at trial on May 7, 2024.

The charges arose from an investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service Violent Crime Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

According to investigators, on May 11, 2023, U.S. Marshals apprehended Hutchins at Johnston’s Springer residence on outstanding felony arrest warrants out of Wichita County, Texas.  As the entry team prepared to breach the house, Johnston confessed that Hutchins had access to firearms inside the residence.  During the arrest, Marshals discovered Hutchins armed with an AR .223 semi-automatic rifle, a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and assorted rounds of ammunition and shotgun shells.  After obtaining a search warrant for the residence, investigators discovered a second AR .223 and a 12-gauge shotgun in Hutchins’ bedroom closet and a .22 caliber rifle and ammunition in the living area of the house.

At the time of arrest, both Hutchins and Johnston had previously been convicted of crimes punishable by more than one year imprisonment.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

The Honorable John F. Heil, III, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Hutchins and Johnston 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. Attorneys Edith Singer and T. Cameron McEwen and represented the United States.