By Fox23.com News Staff
VINITA, Okla. — A Vinita man was found guilty by a federal jury of raping a 16-year-old girl.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma said 37-year-old Garret Lee Monroe, a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming, was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse by force in Indian Country.
On November, 30 2025, the Vinita Police Department was called to a fight in progress. Officers arrived and broke up a fight between Monroe and another man.
The other man in the fight told officers that the 16-year-old victim had asked him to come home as soon as possible because something bad had happened.
The man said the victim told him that Monroe had strangled and raped her and threatened to kill her.
The man confronted Monroe and a fight followed.
Officers spoke with the victim, who said Monroe woke up in the middle of the night by covering her mouth and strangling her.
When the victim testified, she explained to the jury that while Monroe was strangling her, she could not breathe and thought she was going to die.
The victim said she began screaming and Monroe put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Monroe then raped the victim and afterwards told her that he was afraid he was going to prison.
When the SANE nurse testified, she went through detailed reports and explained to the jury what the victim said at the hospital. The nurse took DNA swabs and photographed the victim’s injuries.
The photographs were shown to the jury, including photos of bruises and abrasions to her neck and of the petechiae in the victim’s eyes and on her face caused by the strangulation.
During the trial, a DNA expert with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), confirmed the swabs taken from the victim matched Monroe’s DNA.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monroe is a prior felon and was previously convicted of serious offenses including assault and battery on an officer, assault and battery with a deadly weapon and robbery.
In 2007, Monroe was sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections, with 16 years suspended, for the robbery charge. Monroe did not comply with the terms of his release and his suspended sentence was revoked.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monroe was released seven months before the rape.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Vinita Police Department, OSBI and Tulsa Police Department investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stacey Todd and Blithe Cravens prosecuted the case.
