MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Friends and family of Braeden Collins left the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Muskogee heartbroken Monday afternoon after Collins’ killer was given less than a decade in prison as part of a plea deal.
Kiah John Pritchett killed Collins by shooting him in the back of the head and then Pritchett burned his own car with Collins inside in July 2021. Collins hitched a ride with Pritchett after a car accident, and Collins’ family believes Braeden was trying to exit Pritchett’s car and run from him when Pritchett shot him in the back of the head.
“We were just a formality,” said Jenny Bump, Braeden’s mother. “They wanted us to say what we needed to say, and then they just moved on as planned no matter what we said.”
Braeden’s friends and family, known as Brae’s Army, have filled the benches in each courtroom for each hearing to show of support for Collins’ parents and also to send a message to the judge, prosecutors, and defense that they are not pleased a trial didn’t happen.
“Our son would’ve never done this,” Jonathan Collins, Braeden’s father, said about Pritchett being in the Federal prison in El Reno where his family and children will be able to visit him while he serves his time. “Although, I wish it was the other way around because at least we could visit our son.”
Before sentencing, Collins’ parents, two of his siblings, and a close friend all gave victim impact statements to the judge tearfully pleading for him to throw out the plea deal. However, the deal and its terms were allowed to go through in the end.
Pritchett was given around eight years in prison for both involuntary manslaughter and for being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He will also have to pay $6,000 in restitution to Collins’ family. He could be released after 5 years for good behavior and time served in jail while waiting for a final resolution in the case.
Collins’ family said they felt the plea deal reached last summer between Federal prosecutors and Pritchett was a slap in the face, and they believed had the U.S. Supreme Court not handed down the McGirt decision, the state would have handed down a harsher punishment.
“This was an easy win for them,” Jonathan Collins said. “They just wanted this off their desk and done with.”
He said the family will ask the Cherokee Nation Attorney General’s Office to charge Pritchett with crimes the Feds did not as a way to get him more prison time.
“They sent a clear message to Indian Country today,” Johnathan Collins said. “If you murder someone, burn their body, and you don’t know them, lawyer up, do not talk, and wait for the justice department to give you a sweetheart deal because it will come.”
Bump said if anyone was serving a life sentence, it was her and her family for the actions of another.
“I’m not saying Braeden was perfect because he wasn’t,” Bump said. “He was your typical 18-year-old boy, but he never did anything to deserve to be murdered other than take a ride from him that night.”
Pritchett said in open court Monday he was sorry for killing Braeden, and he said drug addiction, depression, anxiety, and the inability to hold steady employment to provide for his family led to a life of crime.
However, Bump said she believed the entire statement was cold and calculated, and she said Pritchett’s criminal history shows he’ll just have fun with friends in prison.
“I know plenty of people who have depression and anxiety and have been addicted to drugs, and none of them ever killed anybody,” she said.
After he is released from prison, Pritchett will have three years of supervised release where he will be drug tested and other behavioral benchmarks will be evaluated.