The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Kyle Hunter Laws Duffner, age 27, of Durant, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 384 months in prison for one count of Murder in Indian Country—Second Degree.
The charge arose from an investigation by the Durant Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On December 4, 2024, Duffner pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing a child with malice aforethought. According to investigators, on June 27, 2021, law enforcement responded to a 911 call of a non-responsive infant.
The child was life-flighted for care but succumbed to injuries shortly after transfer. During treatment, medical professionals discovered signs of acute rib fractures, older rib fractures in various stages of healing, and a possible head injury.
A post-mortem examination revealed a skull fracture symptomatic of blunt force impact in the early stages of healing, multiple contusions to the forehead, jaw, and chest, and rib fractures consistent with at least three events of blunt force trauma.
The crime occurred in Bryan County, within the boundaries of the Choctaw Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief U.S. District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Paladino represented the United States.
Duffner will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.
