State v. Dowty

2013 SD 72, 838 N.W.2d 820, 2013 S.D. 72, 2013 WL 5570517, 2013 S.D. LEXIS 132
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 9, 2013
Docket26559
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 2013 SD 72 (State v. Dowty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dowty, 2013 SD 72, 838 N.W.2d 820, 2013 S.D. 72, 2013 WL 5570517, 2013 S.D. LEXIS 132 (S.D. 2013).

Opinion

GILBERTSON, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1.] Earl Dowty and his stepson Wayne Richards were jointly charged with 13 felonies as a result of three burglaries committed in Mellette County, South Dakota. Richards pleaded guilty to two charges stemming from one of the burglaries. Prior to trial, Dowty filed a motion to sever charges and for relief from prejudicial joinder. The trial court denied Dowty’s motion, and the case proceeded to trial. At trial, Dowty moved for judgment of acquittal on all charges stemming from two of the burglaries. This motion was also denied by the trial court. After being convicted on 9 of the 13 felonies, Dowty was sentenced to a total of 45 years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Dowty appeals, arguing the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal and his motion to sever charges.

FACTS

[¶ 2.] During a 25-day period in October and November 2010, three homes were burglarized in rural Mellette County. The homes were located within 20 miles of each other. The first burglary occurred on October 30, 2010. Upon returning home at approximately 12:30 a.m. on October 31, 2010, Peter and Marla Ferguson realized their home had been burglarized. Several items were missing from the Ferguson home, including two televisions, two jewelry boxes, three guns, Marla’s work bag, 1 and all the meat from their freezer. The Fergusons reported the burglary to the Mellette County Sheriffs Office, which initiated an investigation.

[¶ 3.] On November 6, 2010, Jeannine Woodward and Rose West left their home around 9:00 a.m. When Woodward and West returned home at approximately 4:00 p.m., they discovered that several items were missing from the freezer and that seven guns had been stolen. Outside, Woodward and West noticed blood trailing from the driveway to the front door. However, there was no blood inside their home. During the investigation of the burglary, the Mellette County Sheriffs Department collected a sample of the blood from the front door for DNA testing. At that time, no suspects were identified for either burglary.

[¶ 4.] The next burglary occurred on November 24, 2010. At approximately 7:00 p.m., Michael Williams returned home after having dinner with his family at a coworker’s house. Williams’s wife and children had a separate vehicle, and planned to return home sometime after Williams. Upon entering his home, Williams immedi *823 ately saw two men he did not recognize. One of the two men was rifling through the freezer, while the other man was attempting to remove the television from the wall. The man by the freezer turned around and pointed a handgun at Williams. Subsequently, Williams saw the man by the television reach into his coat pocket. Williams then saw a laser beam flash across the wall. 2 Williams closed the front door and started running away from the house. While Williams was running, he saw the laser beam shining near him on the ground and was then shot twice in the leg. Despite his injuries, Williams was able to access the handgun he carried with him and fire one shot in the air. Williams then called 911 on his cell phone. The two men fled the scene while Williams waited for help. Once law enforcement arrived, Williams was transported to the hospital for treatment. He eventually recovered from his injuries. Items stolen from Williams’s home included the handgun with the laser sight, a second handgun, jewelry, coins, and a flashlight.

[¶ 5.] After Williams was transported to the hospital, law enforcement began investigating the burglary and shooting. Agent Jason Jares, a law enforcement officer employed by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigations (DCI), led the investigation. One of the items recovered from the scene was a partially smoked cigarette butt that had been found near the deck outside of the home. The cigarette butt was sent to the DCI forensic lab for DNA testing.

[¶ 6.] As the investigation progressed, Earl Dowty and his stepson, Wayne Richards, became the primary suspects in the burglary and shooting that took place at Williams’s home. Specifically, Dowty was suspected of being the individual Williams observed standing at the freezer. Richards was suspected of being the individual Williams observed attempting to remove the television from the wall, who shot Williams as Williams ran away from the house. Both Dowty and Richards lived with Dowt/s wife (Richards’s mother), Rose Leading Fighter, at her home in Parmelee, South Dakota, which is located within an Indian reservation. Because the home was located on reservation land, Agent Jares sought assistance with the investigation from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. The FBI agent obtained a federal search warrant for Leading Fighter’s home that permitted law enforcement to search for items stolen from Williams’s home.

[¶ 7.] The search warrant was executed on January 8, 2011. During the execution of the search warrant, law enforcement did not locate any of the items that had been stolen from Williams’s home. Nevertheless, while searching the home, law enforcement discovered a tan cloth bag with a buffalo skull imprinted on the side. The bag contained various items including documents with the name “Marla Ferguson” on them, a wallet, and a jewelry box. Leading Fighter consented to law enforcement taking possession of the bag and its contents.

[¶ 8.] Before executing the search warrant, Agent Jares was unaware of the burglaries of the Ferguson and Woodward/West homes. However, Agent Jares was informed of these two burglaries after recovering the bag containing the documents with Marla Ferguson’s name. Upon learning of these unsolved burglaries, law enforcement realized that some of the items they had seen in plain view while executing the search warrant at Leading *824 Fighter’s home were consistent with items that had been stolen from the Ferguson home. Ultimately, Leading Fighter consented to law enforcement taking custody of a jewelry box and a television that had been stolen from the Ferguson home.

[¶ 9.] As investigations of the three burglaries continued, law enforcement obtained additional evidence that connected Dowty and Richards to the burglaries. For example, law enforcement discovered Dowty and Richards had traded and pawned various guns that had been stolen during the burglaries of the Ferguson, Woodward/West, and Williams homes. Specifically, on November 23, 2010, Richards pawned a rifle that had been stolen from the Woodward/West home. Dowty was with Richards at the time, but Dowty remained outside the pawn shop in a vehicle. The next day, Dowty pawned a rifle that had also been stolen from the Woodward/West home. Richards was in the pawn shop with Dowty at the time Dowty pawned the rifle. Furthermore, on two separate occasions during fall 2010, Dowty traded stolen guns to Jason Little Elk in exchange for Little Elk performing repair work on Dowty’s vehicle. The first gun Dowty traded Little Elk was a rifle that had been stolen from the Ferguson home. Richards was with Dowty at the time of the trade. In fact, Richards retrieved the rifle and handed it to Little Elk. The second gun Dowty traded Little Elk was the handgun with a laser sight that had been used to shoot Williams.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Martin
2025 S.D. 15 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2025)
State v. Carter
2023 S.D. 67 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2023)
State v. Hauge
2019 S.D. 45 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Solis
2019 S.D. 36 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Stone
2019 S.D. 18 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2019)
State v. Quist
2018 SD 30 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2018)
State v. Goodshot
2017 SD 33 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2017)
State v. Uhing
2016 SD 93 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2016)
Huether v. Mihm Transportation Co.
2014 SD 93 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2014)
State v. Hayes
2014 SD 72 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2014)
State v. Nekolite
2014 SD 55 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2014)
State v. Miller
2014 SD 49 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2014)
State v. Guthmiller
2014 SD 7 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2013 SD 72, 838 N.W.2d 820, 2013 S.D. 72, 2013 WL 5570517, 2013 S.D. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dowty-sd-2013.