Source: US FBI
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Joseph Celdon Mullins, age 22, of Wewoka, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 210 months in prison for one count of Murder in Indian Country – Second Degree. Mullins was also sentenced to 120 months in prison for one count of using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. The terms are set to be served consecutively.
The charges arose from an investigation by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Tribal Police Department, the Seminole Nation Lighthorse Police Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
On November 6, 2024, Mullins pleaded guilty to the charges. According to investigators on June 20, 2023, Mullins pulled a 9mm pistol during an argument with a neighbor and fired twice. One bullet struck the victim, who died on the scene. The crimes occurred in Seminole County, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
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. Mullins 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.