MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Zavius Alexander Burgess, age 23, of Stillwater, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 71 months in prison for one count of Assault with a Dangerous Weapon with Intent to Do Bodily Harm in Indian Country. The Court ordered the term to be served consecutive to any undischarged term of imprisonment imposed in Kay County District Court case CF-2020-00049. Burgess is currently incarcerated on two concurrent life sentences on that case for convictions of one count of Murder in the First Degree-Deliberate Intent, and one count of Conspiracy.The assault charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Hughes County Sheriff’s Office.According to investigators, on January 7, 2025, while housed within the maximum-security unit of the Allen Gamble Correctional Center in Holdenville, Oklahoma, Burgess stabbed a correctional officer with a homemade knife. On August 28, 2025, Burgess, a registered tribal member, pleaded guilty to the charge in federal district court.The crime occurred in Hughes County, within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.The Honorable John F.
Heil, III, Chief Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarrod Leaman represented the United States at the sentencing hearing.