MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma has announced that Jade Larae Duncan, a 28-year-old resident of Stilwell, Oklahoma, has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison. This sentence is for one count of involuntary manslaughter in Indian Country and will be followed by two years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and the Adair County Sheriff’s Office. Duncan had pleaded guilty to the charge on February 11, 2025. According to investigators, on December 2, 2022, Duncan’s vehicle left the roadway and crashed into a creek bed alongside Salem Road (E 893 Road) in Adair County. She managed to free herself and one passenger before the vehicle caught fire. However, a second passenger was trapped in the back seat and died due to injuries from the crash and subsequent fire.
Duncan admitted to consuming alcohol prior to driving that night. A witness described her as “tired and sleepy.” Toxicology results showed her blood alcohol level at approximately 0.085 g/ml shortly after the crash—slightly above the legal limit of 0.080 g/ml.
The incident took place within Cherokee Nation Reservation boundaries in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Chief U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White presided over Duncan’s hearing at the United States District Court for this district.
Duncan is required to self-report on August 4, 2025, at a facility under the United States Bureau of Prisons where she will serve a non-paroleable incarceration term.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lewis M. Reagan, Patrick M. Flanigan, and T. Cameron McEwen represented the United States in this case.
