GUILTY OK - Lucilla McGirt, Karen Wolf & James Howard, slain, Seminole County, 2 March 2004

DENVER — An appeals court Friday ordered the release of a man sentenced to death in an Oklahoma court for three Seminole County murders, but said federal authorities can put him on trial for the crimes.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 Friday that the Seminole County District Court did not have jurisdiction because the murders David Magnan was convicted of committing were on Indian land.

Magnan is illegally being held in state custody “because jurisdiction over Magnan's crimes rests exclusively with the United States, rather than the state of Oklahoma,” the judges wrote in a 36-page decision.

“Given the nature of the crimes and Magnan's admitted guilt, we presume that federal authorities will arrest and try Magnan following his release from state custody,” wrote the judges of the Denver-based court.

Magnan pleaded guilty in state court to the 2004 murders of Lucilla McGirt, Karen Wolf and James Howard at Howard's rural home in an ongoing family dispute.
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Federal prosecutors say 53-year-old David Brian Magnan was convicted of murder Friday in federal court in Muskogee for the shooting deaths of James Howard, Karen Wolf and Lucilla McGirt.

Court records do not show a recommended sentence and his attorney did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

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A Shawnee man has received three life sentences for the shooting deaths of three people in 2004.

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