May 4—MUSKOGEE — The last of three men charged in the death of a Haileyville man was sentenced Thursday to federal imprisonment.

Jimmy Nace, 50, of Haileyville, was sentenced to serve 15 years in a federal prison after he pleaded guilty in March 2022 to murder in Indian Country-second degree in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Nace was originally indicted in May 2021 for murder in Indian country for the July 2019 death of 49-year-old Haileyville resident Bobby Joe Dalpoas Jr.

Members of the Dalpoas family gave statements to U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White prior to Nace's sentencing, telling the judge the family has fought hard to get justice for Bobby Dalpoas and requested White to give Nace the maximum sentence.

According to court documents, the federal sentencing guidelines and calculations gave Nace a possible sentence of up to 18 years in a federal prison. Nace's plea agreement showed the defense and prosecutors agreed to a prison sentence of 15 years.

Attorneys for Nace asked White in a motion filed Monday to follow the recommendation of the plea deal due to Nace suffering from Parkinson's disease and to lower the burden of his medical care on the taxpayer's dime.

Nace declined to speak at the Thursday hearing.

The plea agreement came in March after Nace's attorney, Georgia-based federal defender J. Wesley Bryant, filed a motion stating government prosecutors "should not be allowed to now change their theory of the case and prosecute Mr. Nace with the premeditated murder of Mr. Dalpoas."

Bryant wrote the government endorsed the theory that Dalpoas was killed at a Haileyville residence and not at a Bache cemetery when prosecutors allowed Matthew Vermillion, 42, to enter into a plea deal and plead guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact in Indian Country.

Vermillion was sentenced in March 2023 to 15 years in federal prison for his role in Dalpoas' death with three-years of supervision after his release.

"The federal prosecutors in their prosecution of Matthew Vermillion conceded that Mr. Dalpoas was dead in the house," Bryant wrote in the motion. "We know that the same prosecutor who filed the criminal information and drafted the factual basis for the information against Mr. Vermillion is the same prosecutor handling Mr. Nace's trial. However, the same prosecutor is taking factually inconsistent positions in the same case."

A report from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office states Dalpoas' cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and thermal burn injuries with none of the injuries appearing to be "postmortem."

A third individual, Tyler Morgan, 23, was found guilty in May 2020 and is serving a 126-month confinement in a military prison following a military court-martial for attempted murder, accessory after the fact to aggravated assault, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, and false official statement.

Morgan told investigators that the three men believed Dalpoas was dead after a fight with Nace because Dalpoas didn't appear to be breathing and was bleeding from his head.

Pittsburg County Sheriff Chris Morris said the body of Dalpoas was found July 4, 2019 "partially burned and badly beaten" inside the Bache Red Oak Cemetery east of McAlester.

An affidavit filed in the case states Morgan told investigators that a fight occurred between Dalpoas and Nace when Dalpoas was struck in the face and went down after being punched. Nace told investigators that it was Vermillion that struck Dalpoas in the face, the affidavit states.

Nace stated in the plea deal that he "aided and abetted" Vermillion and Morgan in the killing of Dalpoas by helping them load the man into the back of a truck and taking him to the cemetery.

"While at the cemetery, I retrieved a cement bench at the cemetery with Morgan that was eventually dropped on Mr. Dalpoas head multiple times; and then I sprayed lighter fluid on Mr. Dalpoas prior to him being lit on fire."

Nace also acknowledges the medical examiner report states Dalpoas' death was caused by the concrete bench.

White granted Nace's request to serve his sentence close to Oklahoma in a federal prison with a medical facility to continue to receive treatment for his medical condition.