Guilty Plea In Reservation Killing

Gavel

     A Pine Ridge Reservation woman has pled guilty in federal court in Rapid City to a July 2020 stabbing death on the reservation. 

     20-year old Jonnie Fineran accepted a plea agreement that had her plead guilty to 2nd-degree murder in the death of Thomas Sitting Bear in Manderson in return for a sentencing recommendation of roughly 20-to-25 years in prison instead of life.

      According to the factual basis statement signed by Fineran, she and a juvenile stabbed Sitting Bear more than 60 times – puncturing his heart 10 times – then beat him with a baseball bat before stuffing his body in a plastic tote bin.