By Tim Binnall
A murder trial set to start this week in Oklahoma will decide the fate of a man who allegedly killed his fishing buddy and later explained to authorities that he did so in order to stop the victim from summoning Sasquatch to eat him. The bizarre incident occurred in July of 2022 when Larry Sanders and Jimmy Knighten visited the state's South Canadian River for some noodling, which is the practice of catching catfish with one's bare hands. During the excursion, the two men got into some kind of disagreement that culminated with Knighten dead and Sanders confessing to police with the caveat that Bigfoot was ultimately to blame for his friend's demise.
Specifically, Sanders reportedly weaved a wild tale wherein Knighten had lured him to the spot because "Sasquatches were gathering on the South Canadian River and he was to be a sacrifice to them." As such, his reasoning went, he had no other choice but to kill his friend to save himself from becoming Bigfoot food. Sanders was subsequently arrested for Knighten's murder and the case wound its way through the Oklahoma judicial system over the next two years, culminating in a trial scheduled to start on Tuesday. Rather than argue that he was not responsible for the killing, since his multiple confessions make that point rather moot, Knighten's attorneys intend to offer a "defense of mental illness or insanity at the time of the offense."
To that end, a defense-enlisted psychiatrist will be called upon to testify that, based on his examination of Sanders, the murder was brought about by a "methamphetamine-induced psychotic disorder" that caused him to believe in the terrifying Sasquatch sacrifice scenario, complete with vivid hallucinations of the menacing creatures. Potentially bolstering their case is previous testimony from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agent who interviewed Sanders and recalled him claiming to have seen Bigfoot at the time of the incident. As for Sanders' potential drug use, he somewhat amusingly revealed to arresting officers that he "usually used a little meth to get him going in the mornings."
As one might imagine, prosecutors have pushed back against the "mental illness or insanity" defense and plan to provide their own expert who will posit that the situation does not meet the legal criteria for such an argument in the state of Oklahoma. Perhaps sensing that it would be difficult to find a jury of peers in a matter wherein he is accused of killing his friend in a methamphetamine-fueled paranoia surrounding a fear of being victim to a Sasquatch sacrifice, Sanders has opted to have his fate decided by the judge presiding over the case. Should the prosecution be victorious, he could face life in prison and, if the defense prevails, he will remanded to a state facility for an indeterminate length of time.