A Pine Ridge Reservation man has been sentenced to 3 life terms plus 30 years for killing 3 people in a house near Wounded Knee 23 months ago.
Elijah West had been convicted of shooting to death 39-year old Michael White Plume Sr, 38-year old Alma Garneaux, and 38-year old Jamie Graham on the night of January 4th, 2022.
A federal jury in Rapid City convicted West in a 5-day trial in September of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder, 3 counts of Discharge of a Firearm During a Crime of Violence, and one count of Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person.
Each of the murder charges brought a term of life, which must be served consecutively, while each of the charges for using a gun added another 10 years.
Testimony during the trial showed that West entered the home, joined a group of people visiting around a kitchen table, then pulled a gun from his waistband and started shooting.
West then ordered a fourth person at gunpoint to get him a ride to a residence in Manderson, but the person called 911 as soon as West left. West was arrested the next day, still in possession of the gun shown by testing to have been used in the murders.
U-S Attorney for South Dakota Alison Ramsdell says “This case stands out as a particularly heinous example of human depravity” as West “committed unspeakable acts of violence for which no sentence would ever be sufficient.”
Ramsdell hopes the 3 life sentences “give the victims’ families some measure of closure as they grieve the senseless loss of their loved ones.”
She also credits the FBI and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety for their relentless investigative efforts in the case