{"id":4221,"date":"2020-11-06T12:54:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T18:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=4221"},"modified":"2020-11-06T12:57:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T18:57:07","slug":"police-officer-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/06\/police-officer-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal murder charge laid against former police officer"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/IMG>
R. Trent Shores, a \r\ncitizen of the Choctaw Nation who serves as the U.S. Attorney for Northern \r\nOklahoma, testifies at at Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing in \r\nWashington, D.C., on October 25, 2017. Photo: SCIA<\/A> \r\n<\/FIGCAPTION>\r\n
Former Tulsa Police Officer Charged with First Degree Murder<\/div>\r\n
Friday, November 6, 2020<\/div>\r\n
Source: United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma <\/div>\r\n
justice.gov\/usao-ndok<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n• INDICTMENT: U.S. v. Kepler<\/a><\/strong>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nTULSA, Oklahoma \u2013 A former Tulsa Police Officer who requested his Oklahoma manslaughter conviction be dismissed based on the Supreme Court\u2019s McGirt decision was charged today in federal court with the first degree murder of Jeremey Lake<\/a>, announced U.S. Attorney Trent Shores.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nShannon James Kepler<\/a>, 60, of Tulsa, is charged with first degree murder in Indian Country, causing death by using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to crimes of violence, and assault with a dangerous weapon in Indian Country.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cNineteen-year-old Jeremey Lake\u2019s life was senselessly cut short in 2014 when Shannon Kepler allegedly shot and killed him. A jury convicted Mr. Kepler in state court, but the McGirt decision has impacted his conviction. The need to pursue justice remains. The United States Attorney\u2019s Office will now ask a federal jury to convict Shannon Kepler,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. \u201cOur victim specialists are communicating with Jeremey\u2019s family and will be with them every step of the way as this case moves forward in federal court. Our prosecutors have worked hand in hand with our partners at the Tulsa County District Attorney\u2019s Office to ensure this young man and his family experience a full measure of justice.\u201d\r\nAccording to the indictment, Kepler maliciously and with premeditation murdered Mr. Lake, his daughter\u2019s boyfriend, by shooting him multiple times with a firearm. He is further charged with shooting at a minor male victim during the course of the crime. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nusvkepler<\/a>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe return of an indictment is a method of informing a defendant of alleged violations of federal law, which must be proven in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt to overcome a defendant\u2019s presumption of innocence.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Tulsa Police Department and FBI are the investigative agencies. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ross E. Lenhardt and Sean J. Taylor are prosecuting the case. Mr. Lenhardt is a prosecutor from the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Taylor is a prosecutor from the Northern District of Texas. Both volunteered to assist prosecution efforts here in the Northern District of Oklahoma due to the increased volume of cases since the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling which stated the Creek Nation Reservation had never been officially disestablished by Congress. The United States and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation have jurisdiction of all cases that occur on the reservation involving Native American victims or defendants.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Related Stories<\/div>\r\nMuscogee Nation citizen heads to trial for fourth time on murder charge in Oklahoma<\/a> (October 2, 2017)","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former police officer who shot and killed a 19-year-old has been charged in federal court with first degree murder.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,13],"tags":[101,790,397,511,746,564,127,791,84,423,422],"class_list":["post-4221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-trust","category-law","tag-crime","tag-jeremy-lake","tag-jurisdiction","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mcgirt","tag-muscogee","tag-oklahoma","tag-shannon-kepler","tag-supreme-court","tag-trent-shores","tag-us-attorneys","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/trentshores.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-165","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}