MUSKOGEE – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Steven Wayne Edwards Jr., age 49, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 35 months in prison for knowingly failing to register and update his registration as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

On June 21, 2022, Edwards pleaded guilty to Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, a violation of SORNA.

On March 15, 2022, law enforcement apprehended Edwards for failure to register as a sex offender based on a community tip. Upon his arrest, Edwards admitted that he knew his mandated registration requirements but had nevertheless failed to register upon relocating from Wyoming to Tahlequah in July of 2021.

The charges arose from investigations by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office.

In 2011, Edwards received a felony conviction from the State of Wyoming for Third Degree Sexual Abuse of a Minor. Based on this conviction, Edwards is a Tier III offender with a lifetime reporting requirement: he must appear in person to register in every jurisdiction where he lives, works, or goes to school, and he must appear in person to verify and update registration information every 3 months for life.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing in Muskogee. Edwards will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, where he will serve his non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Special Assistant United States Attorney Genevieve A. Ozark represented the United States.