Bigfoot believer found guilty of first-degree murder at Oklahoma trial
ADA — A judge on Wednesday found a believer in Bigfoot guilty of first-degree murder for choking a friend to death along the South Canadian River in 2022.
Larry Doil Sanders, 55, showed no emotion as the judge announced the verdict at a trial that focused on his delusional claims about the mythical creatures. Sentencing was set for June 18.
Pontotoc County District Judge Steve Kessinger reached his verdict after hearing from Sanders himself. The defendant and prosecutors had waived a trial by jury.
Sanders faces life in prison or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His attorney said in closing argument statements Wednesday that Sanders had acted in self-defense after being choked three times by a bigger, drunken aggressor.
The attorney, Larry Balcerak, had given notice in 2022 that he would raise an insanity defense at trial but then argued instead that Sanders was innocent under Oklahoma's "Stand Your Ground" law. Prosecutors had prepared for the insanity defense, even calling an expert witness Wednesday to refute it.
"He attacked me," Sanders testified Wednesday. "I acted out of survival mode."
Sanders was arrested on July 9, 2022, after returning alone from a fishing spot near Allen, about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. The body of the victim, Jimmy Glenn Knighten, was found the next day.
The victim was 52 and operated an auto frame and body shop in Ada. Sanders had planned to start working for him on July 11, 2022.
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Larry Sanders' stories about Bigfoot encounters differs among witnesses
The judge heard conflicting accounts about what Sanders said about a Bigfoot tribe being at the river.
Prosecution witnesses on Tuesday testified he said Knighten was setting him up to be a sacrifice. He said Knighten had summoned the creatures to eat him.
He told his daughter he became the Bigfoot leader after defeating Knighten and needed to return to "headquarters," according to the testimony
He told an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation he had raised his hands in victory after beating his friend and told the watching Bigfoots that weak is evil.
Sanders on Wednesday testified to seeing three sasquatches at the river on July 9, 2022. He described the biggest as black and 12 feet tall. He said the creature was dipping a toe in the water.
He said he thinks Knighten had planned to drown him earlier so his body would float down to the Bigfoots to be eaten. "That's the only thing that made sense," he said.
He said Knighten later attacked him after they quarreled about going back to the truck to go to a cookout.
The first defense witness, John Cundiff, said Sanders claimed "he and Jimmy had been fighting the Bigfoots" at the river. He quoted Sanders as saying, "They were everywhere."
In closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Tara Portillo told the judge, "There was a monster in the woods that day. It wasn't Bigfoot. It was him. He killed an innocent man for no reason."
The judge heard Wednesday from two experts who examined Sanders in jail.
The first, Tulsa forensic psychiatrist Reagan Gill, testified for the defense that Sanders was suffering from a meth-induced psychosis at the time of the offense. He had told her he had used methamphetamine since 1990, the last time three or four days before the incident.
She said she believed he thought what he did was morally right to defend himself.
The second expert, clinical psychologist Shawn Roberson, testified for the prosecution that Sanders did not meet the criteria for not guilty by reason of insanity. "He recognized it was against the law," Roberson said.
The trial lasted only two days. Sanders Wednesday morning asked to fire his court-appointed attorney but the judge refused his request.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Bigfoot believer found guilty of Oklahoma noodler's murder
