Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Oklahoma
A federal jury convicted a Broken Arrow woman Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter stemming from a 2019 incident in Wagoner County in Indian Country.
The jury trial for Martha Christine Simpson, 45, began with testimony on Monday, and concluded on Wednesday with the guilty verdict, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
During the trial, the prosecutors presented evidence that during the early morning hours of July 15, 2019, Jabaica Tecumseh and Tommy Tecumseh came to Martha Simpson’s Broken Arrow home.
Jabaica Tecumseh and Tommy Tecumseh beat and kicked Martha Simpson’s boyfriend, Trevor Richardson. Martha Simpson then stabbed Richardson with a knife.
Richardson’s body was wrapped in a blanket and loaded in the trunk of his own vehicle, prosecutors said. Jabaica Tecumseh drove the vehicle from the crime scene and later burned the body at a remote location in Okmulgee County. After the killing, Simpson cleaned up the crime scene.
The guilty verdict was the result of an investigation by the Broken Arrow Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma prosecuted the case because the defendant in this case is a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe and the crime occurred in Wagoner County within the boundaries of the Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation and the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
Sentencing will be scheduled following completion of the sentencing report. Simpson was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Cosner and Michael Mazur represented the federal government in the case.
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