Wilburton couple indicted for murder for hire plot

A Latimer County couple accused in 2021 of a $500 murder for hire plot are now facing an indictment in federal court.

Dustin Keith Deatherage, 26, and Courtney Nicole Deatherage, 27, of Wilburton, were each indicted in the Eastern District of Oklahoma with use of interstate facility in murder-for-hire.

The couple was originally charged in January 2021 with a state charge of solicitation for murder in the first degree in Latimer County District Court prior to the charge being dismissed due to their Native American status and the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents spoke with a man who travelled from Texas who said Courtney Deatherage wanted him to kill her ex-husband for a total of $500.

The man said he agreed to do it for $250 upfront and $250 afterward with Courtney Deatherage agreeing to provide the gun, court documents state.

He also told investigators that the woman told him to get her ex-husband’s photo and place of employment from his social media account, the affidavit states.

Court documents state the man told investigators he met with Dustin and Courtney Deatherage on Jan. 22 at the City Lake in Wilburton and received a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and a $100 down payment from Courtney Deatherage.

Courtney Deatherage told investigators she and her ex-husband were arguing over a loan that she asked for and she was texting the Texas man “to blow off steam” and that the situation “kept going,” the report states.

Investigators wrote in the report that Courtney Deatherage said she “really didn’t think anything would actually happen” and that she “knew what she did was against the law and she wished she never had involved herself with this.”

Investigators spoke with Dustin Deatherage and said that he and his wife went to a relative’s home to get the weapon to be used in the plot and that his wife either used money from the casino she had won, or her stimulus check to pay the man, the affidavit states.

The relative told investigators during an interview that he was told the shotgun was going to be used to “shoot cans and stuff,” the report states.

A detention hearing for the couple is scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Muskogee.