State v. Klinetobe

• Decision Date: 14 April 2021
• Docket Number: #29223
• Citation: 958 N.W.2d 734
• Parties: STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jonathon W. KLINETOBE, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

958 N.W.2d 734

STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.Jonathon W. KLINETOBE, Defendant and Appellant.

#29223

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

ARGUED JANUARY 12, 2021

OPINION FILED April 14, 2021

JASON R. RAVNSBORG, Attorney General, PAUL S. SWEDLUND, Assistant Attorney General, Pierre, South Dakota, Attorneys for plaintiff and appellee.

ELIZABETH REGALADO of Pennington County Public Defender's Office, Rapid City, South Dakota, Attorneys for defendant and appellant.

SALTER, Justice

[¶1.] Jonathon Klinetobe pled guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree manslaughter. Following a four-day sentencing hearing, the circuit court sentenced Klinetobe to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He appeals the sentence. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[¶2.] Jonathon Klinetobe (Klinetobe) was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Jessica Rehfeld (Rehfeld) throughout 2014 and 2015. Both lived in Rapid City. Their relationship ultimately ended in April 2015. Klinetobe believed Rehfeld had been unfaithful and became unhappy after she eventually resumed a relationship with her ex-boyfriend. Klinetobe began a pattern of threatening phone calls, texts, and social media posts directed to Rehfeld. She obtained a temporary protection order against Klinetobe in May 2015 after Klinetobe physically assaulted her. On her protection order application, Rehfeld stated that she felt her "life is in danger."¹

[¶3.] Klinetobe became increasingly angry after being served with the protection order and began discussing the possibility of having Rehfeld killed with Richard Hirth (Hirth) who, ironically, was a mutual friend. Hirth claimed to have previous, tangential connections to the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Klinetobe used an entirely fabricated story to convince Hirth that the Hells Angels organization was offering an $80,000 bounty to whoever killed Rehfeld, allegedly because she possessed damaging information about the club. Klinetobe even arranged for Hirth to talk on the phone with a still-unknown individual posing as a Hells Angels member who confirmed that Rehfeld was the object of the $80,000 bounty. When Hirth asked about the "plan of action," the unidentified voice simply responded, "dead."

[¶4.] Hirth enlisted the assistance of a third man, Dave Schneider (Schneider), and the three confreres met several times to discuss Rehfeld's murder throughout late-April and early-May 2015. Because Rehfeld trusted Hirth, their plan called for him to pick her up at her home and drive her to her job at Walmart, ostensibly for her protection. However, rather than taking Rehfeld to work, Hirth would drive her to another location and kill her. Klinetobe, the group decided, would not be present because Rehfeld would not get into the vehicle if she saw him. Schneider was to serve as the driver. Klinetobe was anxious to carry out the plan and instructed Hirth to bring him Rehfeld's necklace coated with blood as proof of her death.

[¶5.] On May 18, 2015, Hirth and Schneider picked up Rehfeld from her home, purportedly to drive her to work. Rehfeld sat in the front passenger seat and Hirth sat in the backseat behind her. Schneider drove a "back route" to Walmart, telling Rehfeld it was to avoid being followed by Klinetobe. When they reached a deserted spot in the road, Hirth leaned forward, put his left hand over Rehfeld's mouth, and began stabbing her with a knife. Police reports included in Klinetobe's presentence investigation indicate that Rehfeld struggled and bit down on Hirth's hand. As Rehfeld continued to struggle, he kept stabbing her. From the driver's seat, Schneider held Rehfeld's legs down to keep her from kicking. Rehfeld pleaded for her life while Hirth continued to stab her.

[¶6.] Hirth later recalled in his interview with Rapid City police detectives that Rehfeld began to weaken as the attack continued. As her resistance waned, she looked up at Hirth and asked why this was happening to her. He recalled that she repeatedly told him, "I trusted you" and asked "why, why, why, why are you doing this, why, what have I done?" Near death, Rehfeld asked in vain if she could call her father. She then asked to roll down her window so she could look at the stars as she died. Hirth stabbed her in the neck again. Rehfeld died approximately twenty minutes after Hirth commenced the attack.

[¶7.] Schneider and Hirth then removed Rehfeld's body from the vehicle and placed it in the trunk of the car using a military body bag. Hirth called Klinetobe to inform him that Rehfeld had been killed. Klinetobe reminded Hirth to bring him the necklace. Hirth insisted that Klinetobe help them dispose of Rehfeld's body because it had been Klinetobe's idea to kill her. Schneider and Hirth went to Klinetobe's trailer to pick him up. The three then drove into the Black Hills National Forest and selected a remote area near Rockerville where they dug a shallow grave using Hirth's military entrenching tool. Before burying Rehfeld, Klinetobe took her necklace, purse, wallet, cell phone, and Walmart employee identification tag.

[¶8.] The three men agreed they would not tell law enforcement about the killing or about any of the circumstances surrounding Rehfeld's disappearance, death, and burial. They met on at least two subsequent occasions and renewed their commitment to keep quiet. The subject of the $80,000 bounty on Rehfeld's life was also a topic of discussion, but Klinetobe maintained his subterfuge and offered contrived excuses for why he was unable to pay Schneider and Hirth their share of the money.

[¶9.] Klinetobe returned to Rehfeld's burial site several times. Because of a seizure disorder, he could not drive himself to the remote location and relied upon his friend, Beverly Cheshire (Cheshire), for rides. Cheshire knew Klinetobe had been involved in Rehfeld's disappearance and murder, and she understood that she was transporting him to the place where Rehfeld was buried. She later told police that Klinetobe had threatened that she "would be next" if she told anyone about his crime. In late May 2015, Klinetobe solicited the help of two other men, Michael Frye and Garland Brown, to rebury Rehfeld's body in a deeper grave nearby.

[¶10.] Rehfeld's sudden disappearance went unresolved for the next year. During that time, Klinetobe feigned concern and ignorance regarding Rehfeld's whereabouts. He lied during an interview with a police detective and also lied to Rehfeld's family in an attempt to conceal his complicity and also to suggest Rehfeld's most recent boyfriend was responsible for her disappearance.

[¶11.] Ultimately, however, Cheshire decided "she couldn't live with herself any longer" and reported what she knew about Rehfeld's murder to police in Newcastle, Wyoming, where she was then living. Newcastle police officers, in turn, contacted their counterparts in Rapid City, and, with Cheshire's assistance, they quickly discovered Rehfeld's body. Rapid City officers also moved to locate and arrest Klinetobe, Hirth, and Schneider. While executing a search warrant at Klinetobe's house, detectives recovered Rehfeld's necklace, purse, and other articles taken from her body.

[¶12.] A Pennington County grand jury returned an indictment charging Klinetobe, Hirth, and Schneider with first-degree murder under a premeditated design theory or, alternatively, under a felony-murder theory. See SDCL 22-16-4(1) - (2). The indictment also charged the three men with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree aggravated kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit first-degree aggravated kidnapping. See SDCL 22-3-8 (conspiracy); SDCL 22-19-1 (aggravated kidnapping in the first degree). The State initially provided notice of its intent to seek the death penalty but later withdrew its notice.

[¶13.] In September 2019, Klinetobe pled guilty to an information charging him with one count of aiding and abetting first-degree manslaughter. See SDCL 22-16-15 (first-degree manslaughter); SDCL 22-3-3 (aiding and abetting). The guilty plea was part of a written plea agreement with the State. Perhaps the most notable feature of the agreement was that it modified the statutory maximum sentence for the homicide offense. Instead of mandating a life sentence in the event of a murder conviction, the plea agreement authorized a guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by an indeterminate sentence of up to life in prison. The provisions of the plea agreement made clear that the State intended to seek the maximum penalty but allowed Klinetobe the opportunity to argue for a sentence that was less than life in prison.

[¶14.] As part of the plea agreement, the parties also executed and filed a separate factual basis statement. In it, Klinetobe specifically acknowledged that "[t]hroughout late April and early May" of 2015, he met with Hirth and Schneider and "discussed killing Jessica Rehfeld." Klinetobe admitted he "led Hirth and Schneider to believe they would be paid" as part of "a supposed Hells Angels bounty on Rehfeld's head which would be payable upon ‘proof of death.’ " The factual basis statement further related that "Klinetobe was aware of the plan to kill [Rehfeld] and when it would happen." According to the plan, "only Hirth and Schneider would be present at the killing[,]" and "Klinetobe would be called and join them after she was killed." Finally, the factual basis statement also confirmed the sequence of events following Rehfeld's killing, including her initial burial and Klinetobe's subsequent effort to exhume her body and rebury her.

[¶15.] After the completion of a presentence investigation, the circuit court conducted a four-day sentencing hearing in December 2019. The State presented testimony from a recently-retired Rapid City Police Department detective who described details concerning the investigation of Rehfeld's disappearance and death. The court also heard in-court victim impact statements and received several letters submitted...