MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced today that Aaron Richard Eubanks, age 33, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was sentenced to forty-five years imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, on five counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse in Indian Country.

The charges were the result of an investigation by the Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On August 5, 2022, a federal jury found Eubanks guilty of the charges. During the trial, the United States presented evidence that during 2020 and 2021, Eubanks engaged in sexual acts with a minor victim who had not reached 10 years of age. The United States also presented evidence that in February 2021, Eubanks engaged in sexual acts with a second minor victim who had not reached the age of 11 at the time of the abuse. The crimes occurred in Adair and Cherokee Counties, within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Charles B. Goodwin, U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, sitting by assignment, presided over the hearing in Oklahoma City. Eubanks will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney Caila M. Cleary represented the United States.