U.S. Attorney Sheldon J. Sperling announced Monday that Jackie Howard McGehee, 70, of Muldrow was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Muskogee. He earlier pleaded guilty to using a communication facility in the commission of a drug trafficking offense.
McGehee served as a Sequoyah County commissioner from 1982 to 1986. At the age of 65, McGehee was convicted of unauthorized acquisition and possession of food stamps in federal court, Sperling said.
The charges resulted from an investigation by special agents and investigators for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Pocola and Fort Smith, Ark., police departments, the LeFlore County District Attorney's office, and various other state and federal agencies. The drug investigation was dubbed "Hell on the Border," named after Judge Isaac Parker's jail in Fort Smith.
"The defendant is one of four defendants charged in only one indictment of many arising from this initiative," Sperling said. He said McGehee's co-defendants, Harold Randall Plank of Muldrow, Valencia Eugenea Folsom of Muldrow, and Stacey Matthew Rhodes of Gans were sentenced last year to federal prison terms. Plank received eight years in prison, while Folsom received three years, and Rhodes received five years in prison.
Sperling said last year, McGehee's son, Howard Wayne McGehee, also of Muldrow, was convicted by a federal jury of a series of federal drug conspiracies, manufacturing, and distribution charges, as well as possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug criminality. The younger McGehee is serving 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole for the drug charge, and five additional years without the possibility of parole for the gun violations.
