It was a fishy story, which became a hairy tale…
An Oklahoma fisherman choked his friend to death because he bizarrely believed he planned to feed him to Bigfoot, a judge ruled Wednesday.
“Yes, there was a monster in the woods that night, but it wasn’t Bigfoot, it was Larry Sanders,” District Attorney Erik Johnson said after Sanders was found guilty of first degree murder at Pontotoc County District Court.
The 55-year-old had been fishing for catfish by hand with his high school buddy Jimmy Knighten, 52, in July 2022 when he claims to have spotted a 12-foot-tall Sasquatch tromping around downstream, according to kxii.com.
The friends got into a argument over a fish swimming in the South Canadian River, roughly 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City — and when Knighten shouted, Sanders thought he was summoning the mythical ape to come eat him, according to the local station.
During the wild trial, Sanders told the court he suspected Knighten was planning on drowning him and floating his body downstream to feed to Bigfoot, the outlet reported.
A brawl between the men broke out and Sanders grabbed his pal by the throat and strangled him until he turned blue and died, he confessed to cops.
Courtesy family
Sanders told police he kept Knighten in a chokehold until he stopped breathing while a tribe of Bigfoot watched, Justin Brown, a special agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, testified during the trial.
Sanders claimed he then raised his hands in victory to show the upright walking apes he’d won the fight, the agent said, according to The Oklahoman newspaper.
“Larry claimed that while at the river, he discovered Jimmy intended to feed him to sasquatch/bigfoot,” Sanders told the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
“Larry and Jimmy fought for an extended amount of time on the ground. Larry confirmed he killed Jimmy by choking him to death near the river.”
To win a first degree murder conviction in the Oklahoma, prosecutors must prove “malice aforethought” — meaning the killer must have had intent to cause death, Johnson said.
Sanders’ lawyers have insisted that he was simply trying to take control of the situation in a heated moment but didn’t mean to kill his friend, according to kxii.com
His attorneys had previously planned to use an insanity defense, but scrapped the claim after Sanders was shown to understand “right from wrong,” according to the station.
The first degree murder conviction was handed down by Judge Steve Kessinger and Sanders now faces a life sentence without parole.
His sentencing hearing is set for June 18.
