Tahlequah residents sentenced for role in local robbery
May 24—MUSKOGEE — The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District has announced Kody Fields, 24; Fvs-Chvtv Amos Lawhead, 30; and Jimmy Dale Brown, 31, all Tahlequah residents, were sentenced for their roles in a 2021 Cherokee County robbery.
Lawhead and Fields got 120 months in prison. Brown got 46 months in prison.
The charges arose from investigations by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
On July 24, 2021, Fields, Lawhead, and Brown robbed a victim at gunpoint, firing several rounds, and demanding the victim's cash, phone, firearm, and vehicle. Then on Feb., 9, 2022, Brown pleaded guilty to one count of Robbery, and Lawhead pleaded guilty to one count of use, carry, brandish, and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Fields on Feb. 22 pleaded guilty to one count of use, carry, brandish, and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
"Using firearms to commit crimes will not be tolerated," said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. "Using, carrying, brandishing, and/or discharging a firearm during commission of a violent crime subjects offenders to mandatory minimum sentences."
The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted because the defendants are members of a Native tribe and the crimes occurred within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. Ronald A. White, chief judge in the U.S. District Court, presided over the hearing. Fields, Lawhead, and Brown will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve nonparoleable sentences of incarceration.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bondura represented the federal government at sentencing.
