A Park Hill man has been sentenced to 480 months in prison for second degree murder in Indian Country.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Xavier S. Wilson, 23, of Park Hill, was sentenced following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office and the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.

On Oct. 4, 2023, Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of an information charging him with murder in Indian Country—second degree.

According to investigators, on April 30, 2022, Wilson assaulted and killed the victim with a knife inside the victim’s home.

The crime occurred in Cherokee County, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

“The penalty imposed by the court today reflects the gravity of the crime,” said FBI Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Doug Goodwater. “Thanks to the efforts of the FBI and our law enforcement partners, the defendant will now be held accountable for his actions. The FBI is firmly committed to combating violent crime in Indian country and we hope this brings some measure of closure to the community.”

“The defendant’s shattering act of violence took the life of the victim, meriting the sentence handed down today,” said United States Attorney Christopher J. Wilson. “Nothing makes up for the horror of such a crime, or for the sudden loss experienced within a family and a community. But it is my hope that the sentence handed down allows a measure of justice and safety to allow the family and community to confront its grief.”

Wilson will remain in the custody of U.S. Marshals pending transportation to a designated U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a nonparoleable sentence of incarceration.