By Tim Binnall
An Oklahoma man who killed his fishing buddy out of fear that he was about to be sacrificed to Sasquatch was found guilty of first-degree murder in a rather speedy trial that featured something of a surprising twist. The headline-making case saw Larry Sanders accused of killing Jimmy Knighten during a July of 2022 fishing trip wherein he had come to believe that the victim had summoned Bigfoot to eat him. In a surprising development at the start of the trial on Tuesday, his attorney reportedly pivoted from the expected argument that Sanders was guilty by reason of insanity and, instead, posited that the fisherman was actually innocent because he had acted in self-defense.
Taking the stand on Wednesday, Sanders declared that Knighton "attacked me" and, as such, "I acted out of survival mode." Remarkably, the fisherman stuck to his Sasquatch story during the testimony, saying that he spotted three of the sizeable cryptids along the river at the time of the incident and "the only thing that made sense" was that he was about to be sacrificed to the creatures by his friend. This truly strange account was echoed by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent who testified on Tuesday that Sanders had told him that he strangled Knighton to death and then "raised his hands in victory" before shouting to the watching Sasquatches that "weak is evil."
In response to the 'Stand Your Ground' defense put forward by Sanders' attorney, the state argued that the fisherman was guilty of first-degree murder because he specifically intended to kill Knighton. "There was a monster in the woods that day. It wasn't Bigfoot," Assistant District Attorney Tara Portillo declared in what one imagines was a stirring closing argument, "it was him. He killed an innocent man for no reason." With Sanders having waived his right to a jury trial, the case was decided by Pontotoc County District Judge Steve Kessinger, who was not swayed by the Sasquatch-induced self-defense argument and, instead, found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder.