MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced today that Patrick Dwayne Murphy, age 53, of Vernon, Oklahoma was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty by a federal jury of Murder – Second Degree in Indian Country, Murder in Indian Country in Perpetration of Kidnapping, and Kidnapping Resulting in Death. The life sentences on each count were ordered to run concurrently.
Murphy was originally tried and convicted in 2000 in the District Court of McIntosh County, Oklahoma. Murphy challenged his murder conviction arguing that the State of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute him because he is a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe and Congress had never disestablished the Muscogee (Creek) reservation. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit agreed and vacated Murphy’s conviction. The State of Oklahoma appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court. While the United States Supreme Court was considering Oklahoma’s appeal, the Court handed down its ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma which affirmed the Tenth Circuit’s ruling regarding Murphy.
As a result, Murphy was charged in federal court and convicted by a federal jury in August 2021. During the trial, the United States presented evidence that two days before the murder the defendant stated he would kill George Jacobs. On August 28, 1999, the defendant found George Jacobs and Jacobs’ friend, M.S., driving on a road in rural McIntosh County. The defendant chased after M.S. and George Jacobs in his vehicle and ultimately forced M.S. and George Jacobs to stop. The defendant, along with two others, attacked George Jacobs. After beating and kicking him, the defendant cut Jacob’s throat with a knife and cut off his penis and testicles. The next day, deputies of the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Department and agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation apprehended and arrested the defendant.
“After more than twenty years, justice has been restored to the George Jacobs family,” said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. “Although the life sentences imposed by the Court will not take away the family’s pain and sorrow, they can take solace knowing the defendant will be held accountable for the heinous crimes he committed. I am grateful for the tireless work of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and our team at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in reinvestigating and successfully prosecuting the defendant decades after his vicious acts.”
“The nature and circumstances of the defendant’s brutal killing of George Jacobs are beyond description, and inescapable in the eyes of justice,” said Special Agent in Charge Edward Gray of the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office. “For his crimes, Patrick Murphy will now spend the rest of his life behind the bars of a federal prison cell. It’s our sincerest hope that this sentencing, through the perseverance of those who worked this case, brings justice and closure to George’s family.”
The Honorable Ronald A. White, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Muskogee, presided over the sentencing hearing. Murphy was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal to await commitment to a United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve his non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.
Assistant United States Attorneys Jarrod Leaman and Robert Reeves prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.