Oklahoma court upholds death sentence in 2009 slayings

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man on death row for the killings of two people near Cache in 2009. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on Thursday that the land in southwest Oklahoma where the murders were committed was not Indian Country because the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation there was formally disestablished by Congress.

Mica Martinez was convicted and sentenced to die for the slayings of Carl Miller and Martha Miller at their home in the Comanche County community of Cache.

The district court in Comanche County held a hearing specific to the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation and determined that reservation was formally disestablished by Congress in the early 1900s.