Federal case against ex-Oklahoma lawmaker in girlfriend's death dropped for tribal prosecution

Four years after a motorcycle crash on the shore of Lake Eufaula killed 56-year-old Sheryl Bichsel, the man who was driving is being prosecuted for her death for a third time — this time not by the federal government, but by his own tribe.

Former Oklahoma state Rep. Dan Kirby, a Muscogee Nation citizen, was charged with felony homicide by Muscogee Nation prosecutors on July 27, and the federal involuntary-manslaughter case that had already sent him to prison once was formally dismissed on Aug. 6, according to court filings reported this week by Oklahoma outlets tracking the case. The dismissal, confirmed in filings before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, closes out a federal prosecution that had already produced one conviction, one 41-month prison sentence and one reversal on appeal — and hands the case to a tribal court system built, in large part, on the fallout of a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that transformed criminal jurisdiction across eastern Oklahoma.

What happened

Kirby, 68, lost control of his motorcycle in July 2022 near Lake Eufaula State Park in eastern Oklahoma while Bichsel rode as his passenger. She was not wearing a helmet, suffered head trauma and died the next day. Because Kirby holds Muscogee Nation citizenship and the crash occurred on the tribe's reservation, jurisdiction fell to federal prosecutors rather than Oklahoma state courts — a direct consequence of the Supreme Court's 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that much of eastern Oklahoma remains Indian country for purposes of federal criminal law.

A federal jury convicted Kirby of involuntary manslaughter in June 2023, finding he was under the influence of marijuana and prescription drugs at the time of the crash even though his blood alcohol content was below the legal limit. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III sentenced him to 41 months in prison the following July, a sentence the Justice Department's Eastern District of Oklahoma office announced in a release describing the case as an example of federal enforcement of manslaughter statutes in Indian country.

That conviction did not stand. In December 2025, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated it, ruling that Heil had abused his discretion by failing to clarify jury instructions after jurors expressed confusion over whether prosecutors had to prove Kirby was actually impaired, or merely that he had ingested an intoxicating substance, to satisfy the "under the influence" element of the charge. The appellate panel ordered a new trial, which had been scheduled for early October.

The numbers

• 41 months — the federal prison sentence Kirby served before his conviction was vacated
• Three years — the maximum sentence per offense a tribal court can impose under federal law limiting tribal court sentencing authority, with a nine-year cap across multiple charges
• Four years — the span from the July 2022 crash to the current tribal prosecution
• Three — the number of separate criminal proceedings Kirby has now faced over Bichsel's death, across federal trial court, federal appellate review and now Muscogee Nation district court

How the case moved to tribal court

Rather than retry Kirby in federal court, prosecutors in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, under U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Wilson, asked Heil to dismiss the case outright once Muscogee Nation prosecutors filed their own felony-homicide charge. Heil granted that request in a written order laying out his reasoning.

Based on the facts set out in the motion, including that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation charged defendant with felony-homicide on July 27, 2026, based on the same incident as this case, the court concludes that dismissal of the charge against defendant is not contrary to the public interest, nor is it for an improper purpose.

The handoff reflects a jurisdictional structure that has grown increasingly common in eastern Oklahoma since McGirt. Tribal governments there, including the Muscogee Nation, have built out criminal justice systems to prosecute member-on-member and member-victim crimes on reservation land, cases that once would have gone to state court before McGirt and often go to federal court now. The Muscogee Nation's Office of the Attorney General describes itself as responsible for the prosecution of all reservation criminal matters involving tribal citizens, a mandate that has expanded sharply in scope and caseload in the years since the ruling.

Who is affected

For Kirby, the shift from federal to tribal court changes the practical stakes of the case considerably. Tribal courts operate under a federal cap on sentencing authority, meaning the maximum tribal punishment falls well short of the 41-month term a federal judge previously imposed, even if Kirby is convicted again. For Bichsel's family, the case has already spanned a state legislative harassment scandal, a criminal trial, a sentencing and a reversed conviction; the Muscogee Nation charge now sets up a fourth chapter of legal proceedings without any final resolution of criminal responsibility for her death.

Kirby represented Oklahoma House District 75 as a Republican from 2008 until March 2017, when he resigned rather than face expulsion after two legislative staffers accused him of sexual harassment. He later won a seat on the Eufaula City Council in 2021 and resigned from that post in 2023 following his federal indictment. He was convicted at trial in June 2023, according to reporting from Tulsa World, and was sentenced roughly a year later, a proceeding covered in detail by Oklahoma's NPR affiliate, which reported that jurors weighed evidence of marijuana and prescription medication in his system alongside his below-limit blood alcohol reading.

What happens next

The felony-homicide charge now sits with the Muscogee Nation District Court, which will set its own schedule for arraignment and trial separate from the federal calendar that had governed the case for three years. Because the tribal charge stems from "the same incident" cited in Heil's dismissal order, prosecutors are not expected to introduce a substantially different factual case, though the legal elements of tribal felony homicide differ from the federal involuntary-manslaughter statute Kirby was previously tried under. Kirby has not filed a public response to the tribal charge, and no arraignment date had been publicly reported as of this week. The case adds to a growing docket of post-McGirt prosecutions moving through tribal courts across eastern Oklahoma as tribes, the Justice Department and federal courts continue sorting out which crimes belong in which system nearly five years after the Supreme Court's ruling reshaped the map.