Oklahoma man convicted of beating and strangling friend to death because he believed he summoned Bigfoot to eat him

An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a friend he believed had “summoned Bigfoot.”

Larry Doil Sanders, 55, was sentenced to life in a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole for the 2022 killing of Jimmy Knighten, court records show.

Sanders was found guilty in April in a non-jury trial of one count of first-degree murder in connection with Knighten’s death. Law & Crime reports.

The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and the Pontotoc County Sheriff’s Office received calls about a possible homicide on July 10, 2022. Knighten’s body was eventually discovered that day.

Officials, with assistance from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, began questioning Sanders, who reportedly admitted that he and Knighten were friends but that he killed him.

According to Sanders, he and Knighten were heading out for a “noodle trip” on the South Canadian River on July 9 when a “confrontation” occurred. Sanders reportedly told officers he punched and strangled Knighten, after which he died.

Noodling is a popular fishing technique in the southern United States in which anglers use their arms as bait, causing fish – often catfish – to swallow their arms up to their wrists. The anglers then lift the fish out of the water once it has latched onto their arms.

On July 9, Sanders was arrested by police. Investigators reported that he told another family member that he had just killed Knighten.

When asked why he killed a man he claimed to have considered a friend, Sanders said he was afraid Knighten had “summoned Bigfoot” to kill and eat him.

“So his statement was that Mr. Knighten had summoned ‘Bigfoot’ to kill him and that’s why he had to kill Mr. Knighten,” said Sheriff John Christian.

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a mythical human-like creature said to live in the forests of North America.

During his defense trial, Sanders testified that not only did he believe Knighten had the power to summon Bigfoot, but he actually saw the 12-foot-tall creature standing downstream from him in the river where the men were frolicking.

Sanders said Knighten pressured him to dive under and catch a fish, claiming he saw the man howling into a drainpipe. Sanders said he was afraid that if he dove under the water, Knighten would grab him, drown him, and then throw his body to Bigfoot.

Tensions reportedly led to a physical altercation later that afternoon, which ended in Knighten’s death.

Sanders’ defense attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense and was merely trying to gain control of the conflict when he strangled Knighten, not kill him.

He was eventually found guilty by Pontotoc County District Judge C. Steven Kessinger.

“Yes, there was a monster in the woods that night, but it wasn’t Bigfoot, it was Larry Sanders,” said District Attorney Erik Johnson KXII after the conviction.