State v. Long

• Decision Date: 23 June 2021
• Docket Number: #29002
• Citation: 962 N.W.2d 237
• Parties: STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Henry Francis LITTLE LONG, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

962 N.W.2d 237

STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.Henry Francis LITTLE LONG, Defendant and Appellant.

#29002

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

ARGUED APRIL 22, 2020

OPINION FILED June 23, 2021

JASON R. RAVNSBORG, Attorney General, JOHN M. STROHMAN, Assistant Attorney General, Pierre, South Dakota, Attorneys for plaintiff and appellee.

KRISTI JONES of Dakota Law Firm, Prof. LLC, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Attorneys for defendant and appellant.

KERN, Justice

[¶1.] A jury convicted Henry Francis Little Long (Little Long) of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter for the killing of LaKendrick Thornton (Thornton). The circuit court sentenced Little Long to life in prison on the second-degree murder conviction. Little Long appeals, challenging the circuit court's admission of certain statements for impeachment purposes, the State's compliance with the 180-day rule, and the sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

[¶2.] Just before 1:00 a.m. on September 18, 2018, the Sioux Falls Police Department received a call reporting that a woman was pounding on the door of a residence pleading for help. Law enforcement officers located the woman, Ayom Mangor (Mangor), who told them she had just witnessed a shooting. Mangor told the officers that earlier that evening she was with Thornton, when they were picked up by Kelsey Roubideaux (Roubideaux), and a Native American man, (later identified as Little Long) who was in the front passenger seat. Mangor told the officers that she was with Thornton when the couple picked them up to drive Thornton to a location where he could buy drugs. An argument ensued between the man and Thornton, and Mangor reported that the man in the front passenger seat pulled out a gun, turned to the back seat, and shot Thornton in the chest.

[¶3.] Panicked, Mangor pushed the rear passenger door open and leapt out of the backseat of the moving car. She hit the ground, scraping her knees and hands, and losing a shoe in the process. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to pull Thornton out with her when she jumped. The shooting occurred near the intersection of Nye and Mable in Sioux Falls. Investigators found Thornton's body at about 9:30 a.m. that morning in a ditch near Renner, South Dakota, with a single gunshot wound to the chest. An autopsy later revealed that Thornton died from the wound sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m. on September 18, 2018.

[¶4.] Shortly after finding the body, officers identified Little Long as a suspect and began interviewing people acquainted with him. On September 20, Sioux Falls Police Department Detective Pat Mertes (Detective Mertes), conducted a videotaped interview with Margaret Walking Eagle (Walking Eagle), Little Long's mother figure who stated that Little Long had been staying at her house. When questioned about the events that occurred on the night of September 18, she became very emotional. She stated that Little Long and Roubideaux came to her house. Little Long had a gun with him and a pair of red tennis shoes. He asked Walking Eagle to follow him into a back bedroom where he recounted the fight in the car and said that he had "f***ing killed someone tonight." Walking Eagle disclosed to law enforcement that Little Long threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

[¶5.] Police arrested and interviewed Roubideaux on September 20. She told officers that she borrowed a car from a friend in exchange for drugs.¹ She stated that she picked up Little Long, her former boyfriend, at a casino in Sioux Falls and then drove across town to pick up Thornton, who had agreed to assist them in buying drugs. Thornton got into the back seat of the car with a female friend. Detective Mertes confirmed the information gleaned from Roubideaux's interview by viewing security video footage from a Get-n-Go fuel station, across the street from the spot where they picked up Thornton, which captured Thornton and Mangor entering the backseat of a Toyota Camry before it drove away.

[¶6.] As they approached the designated address for the drug buy, near east Tenth Street in Sioux Falls, Thornton became paranoid, and a verbal argument broke out in the car. Roubideaux ordered Thornton to get out. After he refused, Little Long brandished a gun and repeated Roubideaux's request to Thornton to get out of the car. After Roubideaux convinced Little Long to put the gun away, Thornton told Little Long that he was "tired of people pulling guns on him and not pulling the trigger." Roubideaux said that Thornton "doubted" Little Long. At trial, Roubideaux testified that Little Long then pulled the trigger, shooting Thornton in the chest, who responded, "you shot me." Roubideaux initially told the police that Little Long dropped her off after the shooting and that she had no further information. Roubideaux subsequently recanted this statement and admitted to assisting Little Long in disposing of Thornton's body and cleaning the car.

[¶7.] Little Long was arrested on September 21, 2018 and charged by complaint with Thornton's murder. His initial appearance occurred that same day. On October 3, 2018, a Minnehaha County grand jury issued a three-count indictment charging Little Long and Roubideaux with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.² As the case progressed, a series of pretrial motions and scheduling conflicts delayed the trial.

[¶8.] Little Long's seven-day jury trial began on April 8, 2019. The State called both Roubideaux and Mangor as witnesses. As it related to the events that transpired in the car, Roubideaux's testimony was largely identical to her initial interview with police. She testified that after Little Long shot Thornton, Mangor started screaming and jumped out of the car. She asked Little Long if she should take Thornton to the hospital. Little Long said they were not taking him to the hospital and told her to keep driving. Roubideaux testified that they drove to a remote location north of Sioux Falls and that she helped Little Long drag Thornton's body from the car and dump it in the ditch. Both she and Little Long had their cell phones with them, and Little Long used the GPS function to determine their location because they were unfamiliar with the area. At trial, she testified that she did not know what happened to Thornton's phone, but Detective Mertes testified that she told him during the investigation that the phone had been thrown out the window.

[¶9.] Roubideaux also testified that after dumping the body, she drove Little Long to Walking Eagle's house where they stayed for a short time. She then took Little Long to his girlfriend's house where they used bleach and wipes to remove the blood from the interior of the car. She testified that she cleaned up the blood, and Little Long disposed of the remaining items that were left in the car.

[¶10.] Mangor testified that she was with Thornton when Roubideaux, who was driving a gold Camry, picked them up at a friend's house near the intersection of 4th and Cliff. She knew Roubideaux from an earlier meeting with her at the Nites Inn when Mangor was looking for Thornton. Roubideaux had a male passenger in the front seat, so she and Thornton slid into the back seat with Mangor sitting directly behind the male passenger in the front. An argument broke out in the car which Mangor testified was caused by Roubideaux's inability to follow the directions Thornton was giving her. The man in the front seat pulled out a gun twice. The first time, Mangor testified that he pointed it at her head. The second time he pulled out the gun, she heard Thornton say, "You're not going to keep on waving that gun around. You're just not going to—if you're going to shoot, just shoot." The man replied, "You think I'm not going to shoot?" and then shot Thornton in the chest. Mangor testified that she flew out of the vehicle, leaving a shoe behind on the street.

[¶11.] The State also called several witnesses to the stand to testify about the location and condition of Thornton's body in the ditch where it was discovered. Erin McCaffrey (McCaffrey), a forensic specialist with the Sioux Falls Police Department, testified that she photographed Thornton's body, which was clothed in only a shirt, underwear, and a sock, before crime scene specialists removed the body from the scene. McCaffrey lifted Thornton's shirt and observed a bullet wound to his chest. She testified that she returned later to the scene that evening and applied BlueStar to the area. The BlueStar revealed a trail of blood extending from the road to the place where the body was found in the ditch.³ McCaffrey also obtained Little Long's fingerprints after his arrest.

[¶12.] Detective Mertes testified that he was called to the scene and, based on the information he had, he obtained an arrest warrant for Roubideaux and disseminated photos of the Toyota Camry to patrol officers. The car was located at the Lucky Lady Casino in Sioux Falls on September 19. After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement officers had the vehicle towed to the crime lab storage facility where it was processed by the officers and evidence technicians.

[¶13.] Detective Derek Kuchenreuther (Detective Kuchenreuther) of the Sioux Falls Police Department testified regarding the records he recovered from his subpoenas to Verizon for data generated on September 18 between midnight and 2:00 a.m. from phones connecting to the cell-phone towers closest to the place where Thornton's body was found. From this data, he determined that, between 1:12 a.m. and 1:23 a.m., Thornton's and Roubideaux's cell phones were hitting off the same cell tower from approximately the same location near the ditch where Thornton's body was located. Detective Mertes testified that this tower was located 1.65 miles from the spot where Thornton's body was found. Additionally, Detective Mertes testified that he was able to obtain data extracted from the Tracfone⁴ Little Long was carrying at the...