Authorities say Elizabeth Poteete called 911, admitted the shooting and waited on the porch as deputies arrived.

VIAN, Okla. — A 70-year-old Oklahoma woman has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities said she shot and killed her husband, former Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Justice Troy Wayne Poteete, late Feb. 5 at the couple’s home in Sequoyah County.

Investigators say the case quickly moved from a county response to a tribal prosecution because both the victim and the defendant are Cherokee citizens and the killing happened within Cherokee Nation jurisdiction. The death also drew wider attention because Troy Poteete was a longtime public figure in tribal government, law and historic preservation. Elizabeth Poteete was jailed without bond after the shooting, and federal investigators were brought in as the case moved into Cherokee Nation District Court.

According to court records described in published reports, deputies first went to the property around 6 p.m. Feb. 5 after Elizabeth Poteete reported seeing an unidentified man walking around outside. Deputies searched the area and said they found nothing suspicious. Troy Poteete was not at home then, but officers contacted him by phone to tell him about the report. Later that night, at 11:17 p.m., Elizabeth Poteete called 911 again and said she had shot her husband several times. Dispatchers were told she would be waiting on the porch for deputies. When officers arrived, they found Troy Poteete, 70, in a chair with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene after deputies tried life-saving measures. Authorities said Elizabeth Poteete told them right away that she was the shooter.

After waiving her Miranda rights, Elizabeth Poteete told investigators she was afraid for her life. According to the probable cause account cited by local and national outlets, she said her husband, his girlfriend and another unnamed person were going to shoot her. Investigators said she told them she then got a handgun from a filing cabinet and fired at Troy Poteete while he was asleep in a chair wearing a CPAP mask. Some reports said she told officers she stood only a few feet away. Authorities have not publicly described any evidence that supported her claim of an immediate threat, and the man she reported seeing earlier in the day has not been publicly identified. It also remains unclear how many shots were fired, whether any other witnesses were in or near the home, and whether investigators recovered surveillance video, phone records or other evidence that could clarify the hours before the killing.

The victim’s public profile gave the case unusual weight in Cherokee Nation and across northeastern Oklahoma. Troy Wayne Poteete served on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council from 1991 to 1999 and later served on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court from 2007 to 2017. Cherokee Nation statements after his death remembered him as a leader with deep knowledge of tribal law and history. Obituary and memorial notices also described him as a founder and executive director of the National Trail of Tears Association and a former director of the Arkansas Riverbed Authority. Friends and tribal colleagues said he spent years preserving Cherokee history and explaining the forced removal era to the public. That record meant the shooting was not treated only as a domestic homicide allegation, but also as the sudden death of a former judge and officeholder whose work touched law, culture and tribal governance.

Formal charges were filed Feb. 12 in Cherokee Nation District Court, where prosecutors accused Elizabeth Poteete of first-degree murder. Published court accounts said her initial appearance was set for 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, in Tahlequah. She was also being held at the Sequoyah County jail without bond while the tribal case moved forward. Because the alleged crime took place in Indian Country and involved Cherokee citizens, the FBI took over or joined the investigation after the initial sheriff’s office response. That jurisdictional step is routine in major crimes on tribal land, but it also means later filings and evidence releases may come through tribal court rather than county court. As of Monday, no broader public accounting of the March 3 hearing or any plea had been widely posted in accessible reports, leaving the next visible stage of the case tied to future court filings, hearing notices and any additional release of investigative records.

The details described by investigators gave the case a stark and quiet setting: a late-night call, a porch where deputies expected to find the suspect, and a living room chair where a former justice was found mortally wounded. The words attributed to Elizabeth Poteete in dispatch and post-arrest statements became central to the early case because they placed her at the scene, identified the weapon and described her motive in her own terms. At the same time, the public record remains narrow. Authorities have not released a fuller timeline of the couple’s day, any known history of domestic incidents between them, or whether mental health concerns raised by deputies during the earlier welfare-type response will be developed in court. For now, the case stands at the intersection of a homicide prosecution, questions about the defendant’s state of mind, and grief inside a tribal community that knew Troy Poteete as both a jurist and historian.

Elizabeth Poteete remained jailed on the murder case, and the investigation was still being handled through Cherokee Nation and federal authorities. The next major public milestone is expected to come through additional court action in Tahlequah or new filings that show how prosecutors and defense lawyers plan to move the case forward.