Federal prosecutor seeks tougher sentence

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal prosecutor says he will appeal a 35-year sentence given to the admitted murderer of a man who was shot, hit with a pickax and dumped in a shallow grave. <br><br>U.S. District

Thursday, May 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal prosecutor says he will appeal a 35-year sentence given to the admitted murderer of a man who was shot, hit with a pickax and dumped in a shallow grave.

U.S. District Judge Sven Erik Holmes sentenced Michael Lee Hanson, 34, of White Oak earlier this month in the Nov. 9 murder of Hanson's father, Milford Francis Hanson.

Holmes issued the maximum sentence available under federal guidelines for Michael Hanson's second-degree murder plea.

But First Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Woodward believes the judge had the authority to go above the guidelines because the killing was committed during a robbery. Woodward had sought a life term.

Milford Hanson was shot in the head six times. Apparent pickax wounds were found on his forehead, neck, back and arm, court records show. His body was found wrapped in plastic Nov. 12 in a makeshift grave about 100 feet from his home on Indian land near Vinita.

The murder sentence was the first in Tulsa federal court since 1992, when Jimmy Gene Kelly Jr. was sentenced to 30 years in prison.