A Tulsa man whose case led to a Supreme Court ruling on tribal jurisdiction regarding crimes committed by non-Indians against Indian victims has been sentenced to prison in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan sentenced 37-year-old Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta to 14 months in prison for repeatedly neglecting his 5-year-old stepdaughter who suffered from cerebral palsy.
For nearly 3 years, Castro-Huerta admitted that he didn't provide adequate food, hygiene, education, supervision, specialty or medical care for the child.
The child, who was also legally blind, arrived at an emergency room in Tulsa in 2015 weighing just 19 pounds. According to the Tulsa World, the girl was dehydrated, emaciated, and was covered in lice and excrement.
U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said Castro-Huerta will finish out the remaining 14 months of his 84-month sentence for his federal conviction of the crime.
"At that time, the only entity that could charge a non-Indian on an Indian in Indian Country, according to the law at the time, was the federal government -- so that's what we did. We charged him, and he plead guilty," Johnson said.
Johnson said due to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta in June 2022, the case was sent back to Oklahoma so the courts could reinstate his 2017 state conviction and sentence for the crime.
