PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota man has been sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison for assaulting a driver who had crashed into his front yard and later died.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday 33-year-old Samuel White Horse was sentenced for assault and tampering with evidence in an attack on a motorist who had suffered a medical emergency and crashed Feb. 12, 2020 into White Horse’s yard in Cherry Creek.
White Horse was convicted of punching the man in the head. Prosecutors say his father, Jerome White Horse Jr., used a garden hoe to strike the victim in the head multiple times. The victim died several days later after suffering from significant bleeding in his brain.
Jerome White Horse, Jr. pled guilty to and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
After witnessing his father beat the victim with the hoe, the defendant took the weapon and hid it under the front porch of his home to conceal it from law enforcement, prosecutors said. The garden hoe was recovered during a search a couple days later and found by the South Dakota Forensic Laboratory to have the victim’s DNA on the blade and Jerome White Horse Jr.’s DNA on the handle.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Roberto Lange also sentenced Samuel White Horse to three years of supervised release.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services, and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.