In a bizarre case from Oklahoma, 55-year-old Larry Doil Sanders has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murdering his friend, Jimmy Knighten. The sentencing was handed down by Pontotoc County District Court Judge C. Steven Kessinger.
The incident, which occurred in July 2022, escalated to murder after Sanders claimed that Knighten had “summoned Bigfoot” to kill and eat him. This claim surfaced during a nonjury bench trial where Sanders was found guilty of first-degree murder in April.
According to Sheriff John Christian, Sanders admitted to killing Knighten when deputies arrived on the scene. He told detectives that the attack was prompted by Knighten’s supposed invocation of Bigfoot. During the trial, Sanders testified that he believed Knighten was trying to drown him in the river to feed him to a purportedly sighted 12-foot Bigfoot.
The defense argued that Sanders was acting in self-defense, attempting to regain control of the situation, not to end Knighten’s life. However, this defense was not sufficient to sway the court from delivering a life sentence without parole.
