Jury selection began Monday in Rapid City for the last of the 5 defendants in the 2015 murder-for-hire killing of a Rapid City woman.
42-year old Richard Hirth is charged with 1st-degree murder for being the person who killed 22-year old Jessica Rehfeld.
Prosecutors contend Hirth was hired by 32-year old Jonathan Klinetobe of Spearfish to kill Rehfeld, his ex-girlfriend who’d filed protection orders against him.
Klinetobe pled guilty in 2019 to a reduced charge of aiding and abetting 1st-degree manslaughter, but still received a sentence of life without parole.
Hirth’s case was delayed until Klinetobe’s was over, then was further delayed over competency issues. His trial will have 2 phases: the first to determine if he’s guilty and the second to determine his sanity at the time of the murder.
Court documents show witness statements say Klinetobe agreed to pay Hirth and David Schneider to kill Rehfeld, telling them the Hells Angels had an $80,000 bounty on her head. The duo lured her into Schneider’s car and drove her into the Black Hills where Hirth stabbed her repeatedly over some 20 minutes.
Klinetobe joined Hirth and Schneider in burying the body in a shallow grave in the Black Hills, but never paid the promised money. A few weeks later, he hired 2 other men, Michael Frye and Garland Brown to rebury the body in a deeper grave.
Rehfeld’s body was found about a year later after Klinetobe’s latest girlfriend left a tip with the Newcastle, Wyo, police, saying that Klinetobe would frequently visit the grave site and tell her she would be next if she ever told anyone about the crime.
All 5 men were then arrested. Frye and Brown each eventually pled guilty to accessory after the fact and were given 5 years each. Schneider pled guilty to the same accessory charge as Klinetobe and was given 75 years in March 2020, but with the chance for parole after 35 years.