MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)), published as received.

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Kendall Lee Forrester, age 36, of Wister, Oklahoma, was sentenced to a term of life in prison for one count of First Degree Murder in Indian Country, and 120 months in prison for one count of Use, Carry, Brandish and Discharge of a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Choctaw Nation Lighthorse Police, and the Heavener Police.

On February 27, 2025, a federal jury found Forrester guilty of the charges at trial. According to investigators, on October 31, 2023, Forrester shot and killed the victim with a single gunshot to the head at a LeFlore County residence within the boundaries of the Choctaw Nation Reservation.  Family members reported the victim missing after a receiving a suspicious text message from the victim’s cell phone and discovering the victim’s wallet, keys, and cell phone left behind at home after Forrester had told family members that he and the victim were out hunting.  The victim’s body was discovered hours later, wrapped in plastic sheeting, stored in a chest that had been loaded into the victim’s SUV.  Officers conducting a traffic stop on Forrester discovered a 9mm handgun, a magazine containing 9 rounds of ammunition, and a trash bag of freshly laundered clothes and towels in his car.  A latent print on the plastic sheeting from the chest was a match to prints taken from Forrester.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Forrester 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.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jordan Howanitz and Dean Burris represented the United States.