McAlester man pleads guilty in Dec. 2022 murder case
Sep. 13—MUSKOGEE — A McAlester man who fatally shot a woman and injured another in December 2022 faces up to life imprisonment after he pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal indictments.
Darius Alexander Presley, 22, pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in the Eastern District of Oklahoma to second degree murder in Indian Country, assault with intent to commit murder in Indian Country, use, carry, brandish, and discharge a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, causing the death of a person in the course of a violation of Title 18 U.S. Code 924c, and felon in possession of a firearm.
Presley was originally indicted in April with first degree murder in Indian Country along with the three other felony charges for the death of Tonya George and shooting another woman twice at a residence in rural Pittsburg County near the intersection of State Highway 113 and Hamilton Loop on Dec. 2, 2022.
"I shot Tonya and Stacy," Presley told U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerald Jackson when asked what he did during a Wednesday hearing at the federal courthouse in Muskogee.
Presley also agreed that he intended to kill both women when he pulled the trigger.
Full details of the plea agreement were not available Wednesday afternoon.
Presley will be formally sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald White at a later date following the completion of a presentence investigation.
Investigator Alena Ashalintubbi with Choctaw Lighthorse wrote in a probable cause affidavit she was dispatched to a reported shooting Dec. 2 at a residence south of Indianola in rural Pittsburg County.
Ashalintubbi wrote in her report she was told by dispatch one person was deceased with another being transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head and arm.
According to the affidavit, first responders told Ashalintubbi the surviving woman was talking and was the one that called 911.
The woman told dispatchers it was Presley who was the shooter and that he had left the residence in a white Chrysler 300 and that a .22 caliber revolver was used in the shooting, the report states.
Ashalintubbi wrote in her report the woman who was shot identified the woman that was killed as George.
Later that day, a standoff with law enforcement began at a residence in McAlester after someone noticed a vehicle believed to be driven by Presley parked outside a home on North Ash Street in McAlester.
When police arrived, they found the vehicle empty and focused their search on a house where the suspect was believed to stay, which was near a daycare and caused the daycare to go into lockdown.
Police switched their focus after a 14-year-old juvenile walked out of a different residence across the street from the original home that police first focused.
Presley was taken into custody without incident.
According to the report, Ashalintubbi and an agent with the FBI interviewed Presley, who agreed to speak with investigators.
Presley admitted he went to the residence with a gun and that he shot the two women and fled to the residence in McAlester, the report states.
"When he heard the address come over the scanner, he then ran to the residence across the street," the report states. "Darius said that he put the gun on a bed and told the juvenile in the home to hide it."
The report states the gun was found in the residence following a search by agents with the FBI.
Presley remains charged in Choctaw Nation District Court with murder in the first degree, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and carry firearms after conviction/during probation. The case is held in abeyance due to the federal indictments.
