Angela Shangreaux is the paternal-aunt of Kylen and has been fighting to have justice for the boy who used to call her “mom." She is seen here with her children and with Kylen, who is in the lower right. Photo courtesy Angela Shangreaux

Law | National

Native Sun News Today: Lakota grandmother pleads guilty for boy's death

Friday, November 16, 2018

Unci to plead guilty to accessory to murder

By Richie Richards
Native Sun News Today Correspondent
nativesunnews.today

Update:
Sonya Dubray pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory to second-degree murder on Friday, November 16, 2018. Dubray, who is the maternal grandmother of the victim, two-year-old Kylen Shangreaux, faces up to 15 years in prison for the crime, according to a federal magistrate's report. She is not being held in custody as she awaits sentencing, according to the court entry for the hearing on Friday.

RAPID CITY -- The grandmother of a child killed in Porcupine in 2016 is to plead guilty to helping her daughter conceal the brutal beating which led to her grandson's death.

Sonya Dubray is set to plead guilty in federal court in Rapid City to the charge of Accessory to Murder, After the Fact on Friday, Nov. 16 at the Andrew W. Bogue Federal Building for the July 27/28, 2016 murder of Kylen Shangreaux, 2, at the hands of his birth mother, Katrina Shangreaux.

Prior to Kylen’s murder in July, 2016 paternal-aunt, Angela Shangreaux had custody of Kylen for fourteen months. During this time, the toddler had bonded with Angela and her family; Kylen referred to Angela as “mom”, according the Shangreaux. Her home was accepting of Kylen and they all took him in as one of their own, she shared with Native Sun News Today.

Kylen T. Shangreaux enjoys Easter egg hunting. Photo courtesy Angela Shangreaux

Kylen Shangreaux was returned to the custody of Katrina Shangreaux in spring 2016. According the 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.

Dubray was originally charged in September, 2016 with an 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.

One BIA officer testified that there were cleaning supplies at the crime scene in the Evergreen Housing in Porcupine, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The officer had noted during the July, 2018 trial that he had detected the smell of bleach in the home of Sonya Dubray’s residence.

Angela Shangreaux is pleased, yet disappointed, about the plea deal and the dropping of the previous charges. She feels that the punishment does not fit the crime. Shangreaux did not know why the grandmother all of a sudden decided to take the plea deal.

"I am not sure because initially she was taking her charges to trial, which I would have liked her to do because then she would be tried on all of the charges and possibly faced a longer sentence; which is what I want,” said Angela.