RAPID CITY, S.D. – Richard Schmitz, 55, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2013 manslaughter of his girlfriend, Meshell Will, 38.

Schmitz took a plea deal in January, one day before he was due to go on trial for the death of Will, whose badly decomposed body was found along a road in the Black Hills National Forest.  He entered an Alford Plea to the charge of second-degree manslaughter.  An Alford Plea is an acknowledgement that the state has enough evidence to convict, but the accused never explicitly admits guilt.

The judge handed down the maximum sentence, citing Schmitz’s prior convictions for violence against women.

Despite Schmitz’s denial of involvement, circumstantial evidence suggested he killed Will in a motel room in Keystone and disposed of her body.

The case remained unsolved for eight years until a 2021 pathology report ruled Will’s manner of death as either undetermined or homicide.

Schmitz will serve 10 years in prison, minus the 900 days already served.

 

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – One suspect in a convenience store robbery in Sioux Falls has been identified as 38-year-old Marita White.

White, along with a male accomplice, robbed the store at gunpoint early Tuesday morning in the 1000 block of N. Minnesota Ave.

The female suspect was identified as a former employee of the store.

White was arrested on unrelated warrants and charged with First-Degree Robbery, Grand Theft, and Aggravated Assault.

The male suspect remains at large, and the investigation is ongoing.

 

 

STURGIS, S.D. – Authorities in Sturgis rescued 15 dogs from an abusive owner following a report from a good Samaritan.

The Meade County Sheriff’s Office found the dogs in distress, malnourished, and confined to small enclosures.

The local animal shelter could only take in five dogs due to capacity issues, but the Battle Mountain Humane Society in Hot Springs will arrange permanent solutions for the others.

The owners of the property have been arrested for animal neglect violations, but their names have not been released.

 

 

VERMILLION, S.D. – Pesticides are still common in agriculture. Organic producers who avoid them have seen ups and downs in pushing for stronger regulations, and they point to a South Dakota example of the harm associated with widespread use among neighboring farms.

At the heart of the regulatory fight is the application of the weed-killing pesticide dicamba, and how it can drift from one farm to another. Last month, a federal court blocked “over the top” spraying of dicamba products, but the EPA followed with an order to allow the spraying of existing supplies.

Glenn Pulse, co-owner of an organic farm in Vermillion, said a 2017 drift incident had a big impact on his operation.

“Our entire farm was covered. We lost a lot of livestock, and thousands of bees were killed,” he explained.

It also resulted in health concerns for his family, having to regain his organic farmer certification, and a legal battle over restitution. Groups such as the National Family Farm Coalition have been fighting what they call the deregulation of these chemicals, arguing the drift and runoff effect has damaged millions of crops.

Dicamba-manufacturing companies deny responsibility, instead blaming farmers who apply it for not following guidelines.

The EPA has said there were already millions of gallons of dicamba in circulation prior to the court’s ruling, prompting the agency’s order. Pulse feels there are farmers who are careful in spraying chemicals, but he wants stronger enforcement against those he describes as “loose cannons.”

“The guys that are not following the labels and they’re spraying in weather conditions that are not favorable, that is where, I would say, 90% of the problems are happening with drift incidents,” Pulse said.

His calls for better responses to these incidents coincide with policy demands to heavily restrict dicamba products. Meanwhile, Rep. Dusty Johnson, D-South Dakota, is the main sponsor of a bill supporters say would assure uniformity in national pesticide labeling under federal law. But opponents argue it would limit longstanding state and local pesticide safety rules.

 

 

SIOUX CITY, IA – Woodbury County could soon see license plate reading cameras coming to the area, after Sioux City’s City Council approved the police department’s offer to submit a grant to cover the cost.

These new cameras, called “Flock Safety License Plate Readers”, have already started popping up around the Sioux City metro area. Police in South Sioux City, Nebraska, had these same cameras installed last year with some success.

Monday night, the Sioux City City Council unanimously approved the motion to move forward in the grant process. The “Justice Assistance Grant” would cover the $130,000 cost, and set up, of the equipment; roughly 40 cameras would be put up around the area.

Woodbury County signed on as a co-applicant on the grant with Sioux City police; so cameras would go up not just in Sioux City, but in surrounding areas in Woodbury County as well.

“What we’re looking for are some key areas in town, major thoroughfares, obviously high-traffic areas to get the most coverage,” said Sioux City Police Captain Ryan Bertrand. “And then the same thing out in the county, just a little bit different. It’s going to cover more rural areas, interstates, highways; those major intersections where we get a lot of traffic and see a lot of people. Part of this proposal will also include cameras that are mobile, that we’ll be able to move and adjust as needed.”

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Mayor Bob Scott said he had some reservations about the cameras, and raised concerns about whether the cameras will only be used for their intended purpose, which is reading license plates.

“I understand the importance of having cameras to track people down, but I just want to make sure we’re not over reaching. I want to make sure they’re being used for their intended purpose and nothing more,” said mayor Scott. “They’ve had them over in South Sioux for quite some time and there are still citizens over there that are apprehensive about them and I want to make sure we don’t get into that kind of situation.”

Sioux City Police Captain Ryan Bertrand says if all goes according to plan, we could start seeing these cameras going up as soon as late summer.

 

 

NORFOLK, NE – A Norfolk, Nebraska man is sitting in jail following an incident this past weekend that ended up with 37-year-old Jeremy Heiderman sitting in a tree.

The incident started around 9 o’clock Friday night when Norfolk police responded to a call about an individual kicking in an apartment door and injuring the resident at that apartment.

When authorities arrived they began a search for the suspect.  Police then received a call from a witness saying that they had just given a stranger a ride to the West Benjamin Avenue area.  The stranger told the witness that they had just kicked in two doors and they were running from the police.

When the Norfolk PD arrived at the Benjamin Avenue location they found Heiderman in a tree…30 feet up in a tree…and he refused to climb down even after authorities provided him a ladder.

It took four hours, but police got Heiderman out of the tree, placed him under arrest and handcuffed him, but then he refused to get in the patrol car and threatened violence towards the officers.

He was eventually charged with 2nd degree assault, 2nd degree criminal trespass, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.  He is currently being held in the Madison County jail.