Two Seminole men have been sentenced to prison for their roles in the murder of a local man in 2019.

According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, Coker Dean Barker and Scott William Lanham were sentenced last week by a federal judge.

Barker, age 37, was sentenced to life in prison for one count of Murder in Indian Country and 120 months for using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during and related to a crime of violence. The sentences are set to be served consecutively to each other and to a separate conviction for escape.

On April 10, 2023, Barker was found guilty by a federal jury at trial on one count of Murder in Indian Country and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. According to the evidence presented at trial, in April of 2019, Barker participated in brutally attacking, shooting, and killing 43-year-old Michael Kelough An autopsy revealed that, during the fatal attack, Kelough sustained 18 broken ribs, two punctured lungs, and multiple bullet and shotshell wounds. After attempting to burn evidence to evade prosecution, Barker fled to the Mexican border where he was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and returned to Oklahoma for prosecution.

Barker will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Lanham, 45, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for one count of Accessory After the Fact to Murder in Indian Country.

On March 4, 2024, Lanham pleaded guilty to the charge. According to court documents, in April of 2019, after Kelough’s murder, Lanham knowingly helped one of the perpetrators cover up the crime, disposing of a murder weapon and destroying evidence in order to hinder and prevent arrest and prosecution. Despite Lanham’s efforts, the Government investigated and prosecuted the crime, and on April 10, 2023, a federal jury convicted Barker for murder.

Lanham will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

The charges arose from investigations by 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.

The crimes occurred in Seminole County, within the boundaries of the Seminole Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. The Honorable John Heil, III, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearings with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Gross representing the United States.