Scott William Lanham, a 45-year-old resident of Seminole, Oklahoma, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role as an accessory after the fact to murder in Indian Country. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The charge against Lanham resulted from an investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Seminole Police Department, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Texas Rangers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lanham pleaded guilty on March 4, 2024. Court documents revealed that in April 2019, following the murder of a Seminole resident, Lanham assisted one of the perpetrators by disposing of a murder weapon and destroying evidence to impede arrest and prosecution efforts. Despite these actions, authorities continued their investigation and prosecution. On April 10, 2023, Coker Dean Barker was convicted by a federal jury for murder.
The crimes took place within Seminole County on the Seminole Nation Reservation in Eastern Oklahoma.
U.S. District Judge John Heil III presided over Lanham's sentencing hearing. Lanham will remain under U.S. Marshals Service custody until he is transported to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve his non-paroleable sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Gross represented the government in this case.