We now know more about Friday morning’s murder in Chadron with the release of the arrest warrant for 20-year old Ian “Sage” Little Moon of Chadron, who is charged with 1st degree murder and felony use of a deadly weapon in the death of 72-year old John Martinez.
Officers responding to the 1:56 AM 911 call were met at the door by 4 children, the oldest 18, who told them Little Moon had shot Martinez, who was their father. The officers noted an assault-style rifle on the living room floor, then went down into the basement.
They found the children’s mother, Little Moon’s 33-year old sister Reva, in a bedroom “sobbing hysterically” on the bed next to Martinez, who had a gunshot wound to the head and was not breathing. Another loaded assault-style rifle was on the floor with blood on it.
One of the children said they saw Little Moon come downstairs, wake up Martinez, and ask him where something was. Martinez asked him what he was doing and Little Moon then shot him in the head.
Investigators later spoke with a friend of Little Moon who said they were together earlier in the evening and that he believed Little Moon was drunk and had been using cocaine and methamphetamine.
He also said Little Moon attacked his – Little Moon’s – girlfriend and that he and Little Moon also fought before Little Moon’s mother kicked him out of the house where they were both living
Little Moon had left the murder scene before police arrived, fleeing in a stolen minivan. It was recovered late in the morning on Beaver Wall Road near Whiteclay. He was arrested a short time later on the Pine Ridge Reservation by Oglala Sioux tribal law enforcement.
No date has been set for Little Wound’s first court appearance. Dawes County Attorney Vance Haug has asked for a prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office to be appointed a Special Deputy County Attorney for the case.