OKLAHOMA CITY – A federal jury here convicted a Native American on Tuesday of premeditated murder of a Carnegie man and an assault on the victim’s girlfriend that left her seriously injured, Western District U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Downing announced.
According to evidence presented at trial, Isaiah Whitefox Redbird, 34, of Carnegie, bore a grudge against Byron “Subee” Tongkeamah, Jr., and his girlfriend, Kayleigh Roughface, who at the time were homeless Indian residents of Carnegie.
On the night of September 11, 2018, Redbird entered an enclosed porch of an abandoned house where Tongkeamah Jr. and Roughface had taken refuge. He approached them where they were in bed on a foam mattress on the floor and struck each of them multiple times on the head with a crowbar.
The next morning, Carnegie Police Chief Frank Martin discovered the disoriented Roughface, then 23, walking down a street in Carnegie. She was covered with dried blood and had massive trauma, including a fractured skull, a fractured eye socket, a broken arm, and a broken finger.
Soon after that, Martin and Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Agent Micah Ware discovered Tongkeamah’s body lying on the mattress in the enclosed porch. Tongkeamah Jr. died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries to his skull, which was shattered by the blows.
Redbird buried the crowbar in the mud of the Washita River, burned and buried his clothes, and fled to Arizona, law enforcement officials reported. Roughface survived despite losing all memory of the night of the attack.
Redbird was arrested in Arizona on September 26, 2018, on a probation violation and was lodged in the Navajo County Jail at Holbrook, Ariz., where he was interviewed by Ware and FBI Special Agent Andrew Farabow.
A Carnegie man told Farabow and Ware that Redbird confessed to him that he killed Tongkeamah “in retribution for some murder he believed ‘Subee’ committed.” Audio recordings of Redbird’s phone conversations revealed that he believed he had a duty to execute Tongkeamah Jr. and Roughface based on rumors he had heard about them. Multiple tribal members testified against Redbird. At trial, Redbird claimed there had been an altercation in the carport and he acted in self-defense.
After deliberating for two days, the federal jury returned a guilty verdict, convicting Redbird of premeditated murder of Tongkeamah and assault causing serious bodily injury of Roughface.
At sentencing, which will be set by the court in approximately three months, Redbird will be sentenced to mandatory life in federal prison without parole, Downing said.
The federal government had jurisdiction over the case because Redbird is a Kiowa Indian; according to the FBI agent’s affidavit, Tongkeamah was an enrolled member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes and Roughface is an enrolled member of the Sac & Fox Nation; and the crime scene in Carnegie is in Indian Country.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Carnegie Police Department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The Regional Organized Crime Information Center and the Kiowa Tribe provided logistical assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon Hale and Mark Stoneman prosecuted the case.