Found in Arkansas River

Authorities have issued a felony arrest warrant for an Oklahoma man in connection with the killing of 30-year-old Derek C. Marshall, whose body was discovered last month along the Arkansas River.

The Van Buren Police Department said officers were first notified around 5 p.m. on Nov. 14, after a caller reported seeing a possible body near the south end of Lee Creek Drive. Responding officers located a man later identified as Marshall, a Muskogee native, lying near the water.

Marshall was reportedly bound with duct tape, wrapped in a tarp and shot in the head, and investigators immediately began treating the case as a homicide.

On Nov. 25, a felony arrest warrant was issued in Sequoyah County District Court for Danny Goad, 58, who has now been formally charged with first-degree murder with deliberate intent. According to court documents, Goad is accused of causing Marshall’s death “unlawfully and with malice aforethought” sometime between Nov. 5 and 6.

Prosecutors allege Goad shot Marshall, inflicting “mortal wounds” that resulted in his death before the body was later found in Arkansas.

If convicted of firstdegree murder, Goad faces death, life imprisonment, or life without the possibility of parole.

Goad is also charged with possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction, stemming from a 2001 conviction in Seminole County. That charge carries a possible sentence of one to 10 years in prison.

The felony warrant issued for Goad orders that he be taken into custody without bond.