Jury selection started Monday in the federal murder trial of a former Tulsa police officer in the 2014 shooting death of his daughter’s boyfriend.
Shannon Kepler was convicted of manslaughter in state court and sentenced to 15 years in prison over the death of Jeremy Lake, but he is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Lake was shot in the 200 block of north Maybelle Avenue, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out Kepler's conviction last month in light of the July 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the state has been wrongly prosecuting cases on Indian lands or involving tribal citizens.
Kepler was indicted on federal charges in November.
Kepler went through four state murder trials. The first three ended with hung juries. In Kepler's fourth trial, the jury was told it could convict Kepler on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
