Missouri State football will play its final game as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and as an FCS program when it hosts the two-time defending champion this weekend.

FCS No. 18 Missouri State (8-3, 6-1 MVFC) will host FCS No. 3 South Dakota State (9-2. 6-1 MVFC) on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Plaster Stadium. The game will be the Bears’ finale as they are ineligible to qualify for the postseason because of NCAA rules regarding their move to the FBS.

South Dakota State continues to be a national championship contender with their lone FCS loss this season coming Oct. 19 in a 13-9 loss to FCS No. 1 North Dakota State. The Jackrabbits also lost on opening day in a 44-20 defeat at FBS Oklahoma State.

Missouri State has an outside chance at still winning a share of the MVFC. The Bears would have to beat SDSU while requiring North Dakota State to lose to FCS No. 4 South Dakota.

South Dakota State football features star QB Mark Gronowski

SDSU senior quarterback Mark Gronowski had both power conference and large NIL offers after earning the Walter Payton Award last season. He opted to stay at South Dakota State to try and lead it to its third straight title.

Gronowski isn’t putting up the same numbers he did last year, averaging about 28 fewer yards while already surpassing his season total in interceptions in four fewer games, but he’s still among the FCS’ elite.

He’s a 62% passer and is a capable runner and hasn’t thrown a pick over his last four games.

SDSU football has an elite rushing attack

Ranked third in the FCS in rushing, the Jacks are averaging nearly 250 yards per game with four different backs gaining 50 or more yards per game.

South Dakota State doesn’t have a Joplin-area running back leading the team in rushing this year as it has in the past (Joplin’s Quin Renfro is redshirting after Isaiah Davis was drafted in the fifth round by the New York Jets). But Amar Johnson is getting his turn as the leadback after being an all-purpose weapon last year. He’s averaging just 77.5 yards, but is an explosive play waiting to happen.

The Jackrabbits continue to have one of the best offensive lines in the subdivision. Slowing this down will be a challenge for the Beas, having given up 215 or more rushing yards in three of the last four weeks, including a season-worst 364 yards to North Dakota State last week.

South Dakota State has the best defense in the FCS

Only ranked behind a pair of Pioneer and SWAC schools and a 4-6 Saint Francis team, it’s safe to say South Dakota State has the best defense in the subdivision, considering who it’s faced.

SDSU has a top-20 defense in every category and is first in points allowed, allowing just 12.7 points per outing. The Jacks haven’t given up more than 17 points in a game since the season’s first two weeks.

Score prediction: South Dakota State 34, Missouri State 17

Missouri State hasn’t been capable of stopping the run against the elite offensive lines it’s faced this year. South Dakota State might have the best ground game out of anyone the Bears have faced and that will be trouble heading into their final test.

South Dakota State will play this game motivated by potentially earning the No. 1 overall seed in the FCS Playoffs, hoping South Dakota can knock off North Dakota State. The Bison’s game starts an hour before the Bears-Jacks game, maybe opening the door for SDSU to rest some starters in the second half if they have the game put away.

The man who shot a transgender Native American woman to death in 2022 pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter this week in Pennington County. 

Pennington County State’s Attorney Lara Roetzel filed first-degree manslaughter, drug and firearms charges against 54-year-old Gregory Edward Landers in February, about a year and a half after he killed 30-year-old Acey Morrison in his Rapid City trailer.

The case caught national attention in LGBTQ+ circles in part because of the extended wait between the time Landers called 911 to report the killing and the date on which he was indicted by a grand jury in Rapid City. Morrison was honored in 2022 during the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, which takes place each November in memory of transgender people who lost their lives to violence in the preceding year.

Landers pleaded guilty to the second-degree manslaughter charge on Monday in Rapid City, two days before this year’s day of remembrance. 

Second-degree manslaughter involves the reckless killing of another human being. The maximum penalty is 10 years in the state penitentiary.

A letter from Roetzel in the Landers case file says she intends to ask for a 10-year sentence with three years suspended at his Dec. 19 sentencing. His other charges were dismissed as part of the deal.

“This case is a tragic reminder of the consequences of reckless and violent actions,” Roetzel said in a statement to South Dakota Searchlight. “By accepting responsibility through his guilty plea, Mr. Landers is being held accountable for the harm he caused. We remain committed to seeking justice for victims like Acey Morrison and ensuring our community remains safe.”

Court documents offer insight into self-defense arguments

Landers told law enforcement he’d shot Morrison in self-defense when he called 911 to report the killing. He maintained that he’d acted in self-defense throughout court proceedings this year. 

Most of the documents, exhibits, photos and transcripts associated with his effort to have the manslaughter charge dismissed under South Dakota’s “Stand Your Ground” law are sealed. 

The documents that remain public do offer some new details on the situation. Landers claimed he’d let Morrison stay the night after the two connected on a dating app, but that she wouldn’t leave when he asked. He said she’d broken his ribs in an altercation over the shotgun that killed her. 

Court documents say he was treated for bruised ribs and a broken hand after the homicide. The lead investigator characterized the break to Landers’ hand as a “boxer’s fracture,” an injury typically associated with punching someone or something.

‘Stand your ground’ law alters criminal justice landscape

Landers argued throughout the proceedings that he’d wrestled a shotgun away from Morrison before shooting her in the chest, and had moved to hire an expert to re-check for DNA on the weapon. In a letter to Judge Heidi Linngren, Landers called himself an innocent man and wrote that he should not be convicted because of “incompetent” DNA testing.

That testing found Morrison’s DNA on the weapon, including near the barrel of the gun, but it had more of Landers’ DNA on it. Her left index finger was blown off in the shooting, according to a motion from Roetzel asking Judge Linngren to deny Landers’ request for immunity from prosecution. That’s consistent with her hands being “at the top of the barrel of the muzzle at the time of discharge.”

Roetzel’s arguments noted that Landers had accused Morrison of performing a factory reset of his phone, presumably to steal and sell it, but later admitted he’d wiped the phone’s memory to conceal information from law enforcement. Landers also said he and Morrison hadn’t had sex, despite DNA evidence to the contrary, and that the physical fight between them took place in a bedroom and a closet that were undisturbed when officers arrived.

“Defendant says he acted in self-defense, but his words have little meaning, given the number of lies he has been caught telling,” Roetzel wrote.

Lead detective resigns

Morrison’s mother, Edelyn Catches of Oglala, grew frustrated with the justice system as she awaited an answer about her daughter’s death. 

Just over a year after Morrison’s death, Catches lost her son Daniel Freeman to homicide in an incident that took place on the Pine Ridge Reservation and has yet to draw criminal charges.

Nine months and counting: Slain transgender woman’s family frustrated by wait for justice

The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutes felony crimes on tribal lands. U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Ace Crawford was not immediately able to offer any information on the Freeman case Thursday afternoon.

The charges for Landers were a relief for Catches, but she said the self-defense arguments and an issue with the lead investigator in the case, Cameron Ducheneaux, had her anxious about the outcome. 

Ducheneaux resigned from the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office for reasons that aren’t disclosed in the public court file. His resignation is noted in the file, but documents and personnel records that could shed further light on the resignation were only made available to the prosecution, defense and judge.

On Thursday, Catches said she’d been told that Ducheneaux’s situation could have called his credibility into question at Landers’ trial. The trial was initially set to begin this week.

The plea deal means Ducheneaux will not be called to testify at a trial, nor would his credibility be called into question by Landers’ attorney.

“Looking at what we were facing, he actually had a chance of walking,” Catches said Thursday.

Tony Mangan, spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Investigation, said Ducheneaux remains a certified law enforcement officer, and that a hearing on his certification will take place during a meeting of the Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission meeting on Dec. 4. 

The process of working through the self-defense arguments, seeing images of Morrison after the killing and hearing accusations leveled at Morrison throughout was stressful, Catches said.

“It was just way out of Acey’s character, the way he described the altercation,” Catches said.

She’s glad Roetzel pursued the case, despite the wait, and that Landers has now admitted to recklessly killing Morrison.

“It was an uphill fight the whole way,” Catches said. “At least he’ll get something, and it will be on the record that he killed Acey.”

WASHINGTON — Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz announced Thursday he’s withdrawing as President-elect Donald Trump’s planned nominee for attorney general days after securing the appointment.

Gaetz’s path to Senate confirmation was highly unlikely following years of investigations about alleged drug usage and payments for sex, including with an underage girl. He submitted his resignation to Congress last week.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz wrote in a social media post. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.” 

Trump posted on social media afterward that he “greatly” appreciated “the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General.”

“He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect,” Trump wrote. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”

The House Ethics Committee voted along party lines Wednesday not to release its report on Gaetz, following more than three years of investigation. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, including the allegations that he had sex with a minor.

Meetings with senators

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, spent Wednesday shuffling Gaetz between meetings with Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would have held his confirmation hearing. Republicans will control the Senate in the new session of Congress beginning in January.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, wrote on social media that he respected Gaetz’s decision to withdraw his name from consideration as AG.

“I look forward to working with President Trump regarding future nominees to get this important job up and running,” Graham said.

The office of Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, fellow Senate Judiciary Committee Republican, declined to comment.

Gaetz’s future is unclear, given that he resigned from the U.S. House last week and notified the chamber he didn’t plan to take the oath of office for the upcoming 119th Congress.

He first joined the House in January 2017 and led efforts to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from that role last year, setting off a month-long stalemate within the House Republican Conference over who should lead the party.

The race to fill his empty seat in a special election has already attracted six candidates, mostly Republicans in a heavily conservative-leaning district.

Gaetz could jump into the race for his old seat, possibly winning a place back in the House of Representative next year following the special election.

AG oversees Department of Justice

The attorney general is responsible for overseeing the Department of Justice, which includes the federal government’s top law enforcement agencies as well as prosecutors.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Office for Victims of Crime, Office on Violence Against Women and U.S. Attorneys’ offices are among the 40 entities within the DOJ and its 115,000-person workforce.

Congress approved $37.52 billion for the Department of Justice in the most recent full-year spending bill.

Trump had two attorneys general during his first term as president. He first nominated former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, whom Trump later fired amid disputes, and then Bill Barr. 

Ashley Murray contributed to this story

This is a developing report that will be updated.

Last updated 12:47 p.m., Nov. 21, 2024