A 24-year-old Tulsa man is being held in federal custody without bond after a grand jury indicted him on charges that include aggravated sexual abuse, assault with a dangerous weapon, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Deleon Milford Cooks, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, is accused of targeting women from 2023 through 2026, and the FBI is now asking anyone else who may have encountered him to come forward.
According to the KOKH report on the case, Cooks faces two counts of aggravated sexual abuse by force and threat in Indian Country, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm in Indian Country, two counts of assaulting an intimate or dating partner by strangling in Indian Country, one count of sexual abuse without consent in Indian Country, and one count of carrying, using, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Court documents cited by the station allege that Cooks knowingly forced two victims to engage in sexual activity, and authorities say he strangled both victims and assaulted them with a dangerous weapon intending to do bodily harm. Officials say the victims feared death, serious bodily injury, and kidnapping during the alleged attacks.
Per a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Cooks is currently being held in federal custody without bond as he awaits trial in Tulsa. Authorities also say Cooks allegedly brandished a gun during the crime, and allegedly engaged in a sexual act with one victim without her consent. FBI agents say he primarily targeted women over the three-year span, and the bureau is seeking to identify other potential victims who have not yet come forward.
How the Case Reached Federal Court
The federal prosecution is tracked under Case No. 4:24-cr-00312 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, where sealed indictment documents were first filed on October 7, 2024, according to court records reviewed by PacerMonitor. Because Cooks is Cherokee Nation and the alleged conduct occurred within the tribe's reservation boundaries, the case falls to federal prosecutors rather than Oklahoma state courts. That jurisdictional line traces back to the Major Crimes Act, which took on new weight in Tulsa after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling, which established that tribal reservations in eastern Oklahoma were never disestablished for criminal jurisdiction, per the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
That shift has reshaped the federal court's caseload. Felony defendant filings in the Northern District of Oklahoma surged from around 70 per judgeship to more than 200 annually following the reaffirmation of reservation boundaries, driven largely by Indian Country violent crime prosecutions, according to KGOU. It's the same legal pipeline that has funneled other recent Tulsa-area cases into federal court, including Hoodline's prior coverage of a separate indictment against a Tulsa man in a similar Indian Country sexual abuse case last month.
What Cooks Faces If Convicted
The stakes in the case are steep. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2241, a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse by force or threat in Indian Country carries a statutory maximum sentence of up to life in prison, according to the Tribal Legal Code Resource. The firearm brandishing count adds its own mandatory weight: under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), brandishing a firearm during a federal crime of violence carries a mandatory minimum of seven years in federal prison, and that sentence must run consecutively to any punishment imposed for the underlying sexual abuse charges, per the United States Sentencing Commission.
As with any federal indictment, the charges against Cooks are allegations that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and he retains a constitutional presumption of innocence throughout the proceedings, the Department of Justice notes.
FBI's Tulsa Division Widens the Search for Victims
The FBI's outreach in the case is being directed specifically by agents in the bureau's Tulsa Division. Federal law requires the FBI to identify victims of federal crimes under investigation and offer them support services, safety planning, and official victim assistance resources, which is why the bureau is publicly asking potential victims and witnesses to complete its victim-information form. It's a now-familiar pattern in the Northern District, echoing Hoodline's earlier report on a large federal sweep that led to 38 people being charged and 21 children pulled from danger across Oklahoma.
Whether additional victims have already come forward through the FBI's portal, whether a trial date has been set in the Northern District of Oklahoma, or whether prosecutors intend to add further counts as the investigation continues all remain open questions for now.
