Jimmy Knighten Obituary – Larry Sanders, 55, was found guilty of the murder of Jimmy Knighten during a fishing trip in July of 2022, as ruled by a judge.
Sanders had confessed to the killing during interviews with agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation.
During his testimony in court, Sanders described strange occurrences leading up to the murder. He claimed to have seen a 12-foot-tall Bigfoot and heard Knighten howling into a drainage pipe. Sanders believed that Knighten was trying to drown him and feed him to Bigfoot.
The altercation between Knighten and Sanders escalated into a physical fight, resulting in Knighten’s death by strangulation.
District Attorney Erik Johnson Johnson stated that the true monster that night was Larry Sanders, not Bigfoot. Sanders’ conviction was based on the concept of “malice aforethought,” or premeditation.
Both the prosecution and defense agreed that Sanders unlawfully killed Knighten, but the prosecution had to prove malice aforethought for a first-degree murder conviction.
The defense argued that Sanders was trying to gain control of the situation, not kill Knighten, while the prosecution claimed that Sanders intentionally caused Knighten’s death. The prosecution needed to convince the judge of Sanders’ intent to kill Knighten.
