South Dakota
North Dakota teen sentenced to life in prison after fatally shooting man at motel
A teenager in North Dakota was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after a jury convicted him last year for the September 2022 shooting death of a man at a motel in Bismarck.
State District Court Judge James Hill said he couldn’t discount the jury’s verdict against Jesse Taylor Jr., who was 16 at the time of the fatal shooting of Maurice Thunder Shield, 28, of McLaughlin, South Dakota. The judge also took issue with Taylor’s attorney having characterized him as a child, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
“You were a child who used a 9 mm firearm to put five bullets into another human being,” the judge told Taylor. “The court heard the testimony in this case and quite frankly, it was overwhelming. You took the life of an innocent person in a senseless act of extreme brutal violence. Self-defense has been argued to me here, but it was nonexistent. There was no credible testimony that you were threatened, and that is what the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt.”
COLD CASES CRACKED IN 2023: UNSOLVED MYSTERIES THAT FOUND RESOLUTION
Taylor declined to speak at his sentencing. He will be eligible to have his sentence reduced after serving 20 years because he was a juvenile when the crime occurred. He will also be eligible to be considered for parole after serving about 55 years.
The judge criticized Taylor’s self-defense argument, noting there was no credible testimony of a threat. (Fox News)
Taylor’s attorney said at trial that the teen acted in self-defense after a verbal altercation with Thunder Shield. The prosecutor said that argument had no legal basis, that Taylor could have escaped from Thunder Shield, and he intended to kill him by firing the handgun five times in several seconds, the newspaper previously reported.
NORTH DAKOTA MAN WHO KILLED AN 18-YEAR-OLD BOY FOLLOWING POLITICAL ARGUMENT HAS CHARGES REDUCED
Taylor also was convicted of aggravated assault for allegedly wounding a motel worker in the shooting, and sentenced to five years in prison for that offense, to be served concurrently.
South Dakota
Republican businessman Toby Doeden advances to primary runoff in South Dakota governor’s race
Republican businessman Toby Doeden has advanced to a runoff in South Dakota governor’s race, NBC News projects.
Gov. Larry Rhoden, who replaced Kristi Noem last year when President Donald Trump nominated her to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was battling with Rep. Dusty Johnson and former state House Speaker Jon Hansen for a second spot in the July 28 runoff. The primary will go to a runoff because no candidate eclipsed 35% of the vote.
Trump did not issue an endorsement in the race. Doeden branded himself on his campaign website as “a total political outsider who’s tired of the government’s failure to deliver on its promises” and one of Trump’s “fiercest supporters.”
Rhoden, a former lieutenant governor, agriculture secretary and lawmaker, campaigned on property tax cuts and lowering crime in his bid for a four-year term.
Johnson is the state’s lone representative in the House, where he previously was chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus. Hansen, who was elected to the South Dakota House in 2010, held several leadership positions before he became speaker.
The Republican nominee will be the favorite to win the general election in the solidly red state this fall. A Democrat has not served as governor in South Dakota since the 1970s, and Trump carried the state by 29 points in 2024.
News
Agronomist: eastern South Dakota crops hit and miss
An agronomist in eastern South Dakota says corn and soybeans are hit and miss as the growing season begins.
Steven Zemlicka with AgTegra Cooperative tells Brownfield, “We’ve got corn anywhere from V1 all the way up to V4. Biggest stuff’s maybe touching V5. Corn’s coming right along, looks pretty good. A little bit of hail here too, but I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue. Stands for the most part are pretty good, pretty solid.”
Zemlicka says soybean emergence has been slow due to the wet, cool conditions, and there are a few fields that still need planted.
“People were still working on planting soybeans when we got the recent rain.”
He says recent rain totals ranged from a half inch to as much as four inches in the northeast part of South Dakota; the southern part of the state has been drier.
South Dakota’s corn is rated 61 percent good to excellent, with soybean conditions rated 57 percent good to excellent, according to USDA’s first condition ratings of the season.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The South Dakota Community Foundation is encouraging nonprofits to apply for funding this June.
Beth Massa and Ginger Niemann joined us live with what you need to know before applying.
Watch the full interview above.
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