Notes from Indian Country
When a grandmother is an accessory to murder
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji – Stands Up For Them)
There are times when news stories come across my desk that are sickening. And then there are times when one of my reporters has to cover a story that is so repellent it bothers all of the people in the newsroom.
This week was one of those times.
Native Sun News Today reporter Richard Richards covered this terrible story.
According to his report Katrina Shangreaux was found guilty of murdering her son. The grandmother of the murdered boy --
Kylen Shangreaux, 2 -- her name is Sonya Dubray.
Dubray is set to plead guilty to accessory to the
murder of her grandchild.
Dubray was originally charged in September 2016 with accessory to first degree murder, tampering with evidence, making a false statement, and concealment of a felony. Prosecutors alleged that the grandmother helped her daughter conceal the murder of Kylen Shangreaux and lied to protect her daughter from arrest and prosecution for the brutal murder.
Katrina Shangreaux was sentenced to 40 years for the beating death of her 2-year old son in July, 2018, after pleading guilty to second degree murder in March 2018. The body of Kylen Shangreaux had bruising on 70 percent of his body and he had over 111 separate injuries, including bite marks, cigarette burns (thermal injuries), injuries from a studded belt, including defensive wounds on the back of his hands, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The boy was in the custody of his aunt Angela Shangreaux for 14 months before the court ordered her to return the child to his mother Katrina.
The weekend before he
was returned to his mother, Kylen Shangreaux spent the weekend in Rapid City
swimming at a motel. This is Kylen having breakfast during that trip. Photo
courtesy Angela Shangreaux
As is always the case when such horrific things happen in Indian Country alcohol and or drugs seems to be the contributing factor. Several years ago there were numerous stories floating around the Pine Ridge Reservation about the many murders supposedly committed by members of the Pine Ridge government. Native Sun News Today requested a report from the different law agencies including the FBI about all of the murders or deaths that occurred during the 1970s and later.
Nearly all of the deaths and murders were caused by domestic violence while the perpetrators were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Reservation politics was rarely involved.
Today in the newsroom it is pretty solemn. Richards was here earlier in the day filing his story and as the editor I had to go over the story and the production department had to put it on the pages about to be printed. Our production manager, a mother herself, was sick to her stomach reading about the brutality of the murder.
There have been too many such crimes committed over the years on the reservation and usually after such brutal murders the people call for a return to the traditions and spirituality of the past. There are sweats offered and the people pray for their own.
But as long as there are the addictions of alcohol and drugs poisoning the minds of the Lakota people, reclaiming our history will not happen.
Richards concluded his story with “No one will ever know exactly what went on, on the night of the murder of Kylen Shangreaux. The stories have changed by both adults in the home on the night and morning of July 27/28, 2016. The one common factor which has never changed is the gruesome nature by which the boy was murdered. The cleaning up of the crime scene was done by two participants who wanted to hide the fact that a single murder had taken place. According to Angela Shangreaux, she hopes the court will sentence the grandmother in way which will represent her irreprehensible actions on the morning following the murder of her grandson.”
Kylen Shangreaux was returned to the custody of Katrina Shangreaux in spring 2016. According to his aunt Angela Shangreaux. She always thinks about what the boy had gone through in those “58 days” back in his mother’s custody before he was killed.
I believe all of us have to rethink what we can do to bring an end to the drug and alcohol trafficking on the reservation. It has grown to epidemic proportions and as a newspaper editor of more than 40 years, I have written about and published far too many stories of brutal crimes.
It remains to be seen what can be done, but I hope that the insane brutality of the murder of this young boy will bring some positive results to solving the underlying problems.
Contact Tim Giago at editor@nativesunnews.today
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