John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight
Two former Department of Corrections employees, three inmates and another person were indicted Tuesday for a series of incidents at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko told lawmakers during a committee meeting Wednesday that some “bad apples” had been indicted, during a discussion on staffing.
Attorney General Marty Jackley, whose office prosecutes criminal cases that take place behind the prison walls, sent a news release hours later listing six defendants indicted in five separate cases for crimes including arson, drug distribution and possession of “synthetic cannabinoids.”
The indictments on file at the Minnehaha County Clerk of Courts office do not include detailed narratives on how the alleged crimes took place.
DOC spokesman Michael Winder did not reply to a message seeking more details about the allegations. Gov. Kristi Noem’s spokesman, Ian Fury, also did not reply.
In one of the cases, former DOC medication aide Madyson Alexis Bixby was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree arson and possession of an unauthorized article (a cell phone). Also charged in that case are 28-year-old inmate Tyler Dane Larvie and 30-year-old Merced Patlan, who’s listed as a Sioux Falls resident in the news release but as an Iowa resident in the indictment, and is not an inmate or an ex-DOC employee. Patlan is charged with criminal solicitation and arson-related charges.
The indictment in that case says Larvie and Bixby conspired to direct Patlan “and/or any other known or unknown co-conspirators,” to start a vehicle fire.
On Jan. 4, the indictment said, Larvie asked Bixby about the location of a person identified as “A” in the court documents. Bixby allegedly told Larvie, who in turn communicated with Patlan and directed Patlan to set the vehicle ablaze.
Jackley’s news release says the trio conspired to “destroy another person’s vehicle” between Dec. 1, 2023, and Jan. 4, the day the arson occurred in Sioux Falls.
In another case, a former DOC nurse named Alexis Rose Hiller, 27, of Sioux Falls, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to distribute and possession of contraband with intent to deliver to an inmate. All three alleged crimes took place around Jan. 31 and involve the synthetic opioid buprenorphine.
There were three other indictments filed Wednesday involving the penitentiary.
- Inmate Seth Thomas Peplinski, 24, was charged with aggravated assault and simple assault for an alleged attack on “another person in the prison” on May 6.
- Inmate Kelly Michael Irby, 64, was charged with possession of a weapon by an inmate for allegedly having a blade on May 8.
- Larvie, charged for the reported arson, faces nine counts of synthetic cannabinoid possession in a separate indictment.
None of the accused have made their initial court appearances, which had yet to be scheduled as of Wednesday.
The indictments add to the recent drama swirling around the state’s prisons.
The DOC shut down inmates’ electronic tablets on March 10 and issued a memo saying it had done so as the result of an “ongoing investigation.”
In the hours following two days of violent unrest at the penitentiary later in March, Gov. Kristi Noem said the tablet shutdown served to spark the incidents. In the weeks following the shutdown, inmates and their family members complained about being cut off from each other by the change.
Noem said prior to the shutdown that inmates had been using tablets – which had delivered $1.25 million in commissions revenue to the state since 2021 – for “nefarious” purposes.
Earlier this month, Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield experienced two skirmishes between inmates, resulting in injuries to six of them.