Mom indicted in federal court with killing kids

MUSKOGEE — In another case affected by a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer, a federal grand jury has indicted an Okmulgee County woman on charges in the 2018 shooting deaths of two of her children and wounding of another.

Amy Leann Hall, 40, faces two counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder in Indian Country, according to the indictment filed in Muskogee federal court.

Hall has been jailed since Nov. 1, 2018, in Okmulgee County after Kayson Toliver, 18; and Kloee Hall, 16, were found shot the same day in their home near the community of Nuyaka, southwest of Beggs, the Okmulgee County sheriff's office said at the time.

Toliver was found dead in the house, while Hall, who has previously been referred to as Kloee Toliver, was declared brain dead about a week later. Authorities have also spelled Toliver differently at times.

Hall is also charged with assault with intent to commit murder in Indian Country. While the federal charge is vague, Hall was also charged in state court with shooting at her 14-year-old daughter.

County investigators said at the time that the 14-yearold daughter disarmed her mother after being shot.

An 18- year- old who was staying the night, an acquaintance of Kayson Toliver's, was not injured during the triple shooting.

Hall was indicted in federal court after her public defender representing her in her state case challenged the charges on jurisdictional grounds.

The challenge cited a July 9 Supreme Court ruling that Jimcy McGirt, a member of the Seminole Nation, couldn't be tried in state court for crimes that occurred within the 1800-era boundaries of the Muscogee ( Creek) Nation because Congress never disestablished the reservation.

The ruling has since been extended to include cases where the victim was American Indian.

Hall's children are all members of the Muscogee ( Creek) Nation and their home is within the boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation, according to documents filed on her behalf.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, which includes Muskogee, have filed 25 murder cases linked to the McGirt ruling, a spokesman said.

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Okmulgee County District Court to consider a motion to dismiss the state charges based on the Supreme Court ruling, according to an online docket in her state case.