Fort Smith Woman Caught With Sequoyah County Fugitive

           Leigha Ann Yerton                Larry Shane Cureton       

A Fort Smith, Ark., woman was arrested Jan. 21 in Roland and charged with harboring a fugitive from justice, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Leigha Ann Yerton, 43, was released on $3,000 bond.

On Jan. 20, a Sequoyah County Sheriff’s investigator, who is also a task force officer with the United States Marshals Service, was conducting a fugitive investigation on Larry Shane Cureton.

Cureton was wanted out of Sequoyah County for the distribution of a controlled dangerous substance including possession with intent to distribute, a felony motion to revoke warrant, issued Oct. 5, 2020.

After receiving information that Cureton was at Cherokee Casino in Roland, the investigator was allowed to see video footage that showed Cureton entering Room 820 at the casino. Marshals Service personnel went to the hotel room and breached the door, ordering the two occupants, one identified as Cureton and one as Yerton, out of the room. Both were detained.

On Jan. 13, Yerton had told investigators that Cureton usually finds her wherever she may be. When asked if she knew if he had any warrants, she replied, “Yeah, I know he has warrants and he never turned himself in to go to prison in Oklahoma.” She was then informed that the Marshals Service was looking for him and that she was to contact them if she saw him or had any contact with him. She agreed.

On Jan. 20, when the pair was discovered in the hotel room, Yerton was asked why she didn’t contact officials. She said they had been dating for more than a year and it is “hard to let him go.”

Laura Brown, KXMX Staff Writer

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