RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Two people have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2016 strangulation death of a South Dakota woman, but it’s still unclear who’s responsible.
Elizabeth LeBeau and Fred Quiver accuse each other of strangling 24-year-old Emily Bluebird with an electronics cord, the Rapid City Journal (https://bit.ly/2v35kXi ) reported. Bluebird’s remains were found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation several weeks after her death following a search by volunteers. Bluebird had two daughters, who were ages 5 and 6 when she died.
Sentencing hearings were scheduled in June, but they were postponed after LeBeau’s lawyer, Dana Hanna, noted that both defendants’ statements had been validated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“What is very unusual in this case is that the government has affirmed to the court and to the defendant that both of these defendants are telling the truth,” Hanna said.
Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Peterman said the defendants’ statements show they believe their accounts to be true because they were both intoxicated when the killing occurred.
District Court Chief Judge Jeffrey Viken could invalidate the defendants’ plea agreements and schedule them for a trial or accept the pleas and move forward with sentencing.
“I have never seen anything like this in 40 years,” Viken said. “I am really trying to sort this out.”
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Information from: Rapid City Journal, https://www.rapidcityjournal.com
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