RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — An 18-year-old Rapid City man has been sentenced to 40 years in state prison for a fatal shooting in 2018.
A judge Monday sentenced Ronald Black Cloud in the death of 43-year-old Nathan Graham. Black Cloud was found guilty last October of second-degree murder for shooting Graham in the head.
Black Cloud was sentenced under a set of rules that prohibit minors from being sent to prison for life without a chance of parole. He was 14 when the crime was committed.
According to Pennington County State’s Attorney Mark Vargo, Black Cloud cannot be given a life sentence without parole due to a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that indicated how minors charged as adults can be sentenced. South Dakota state law has changed to align with these rulings.
Black Cloud will receive about 3 1/2 years of credit for time he has spent in the county jail.
Ross Johnson, who told Black Cloud to shoot Graham, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in last June after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and being an accessory to second-degree murder.