Defendant acquitted in connection with brutal beating of Lakota woman

Thursday, April 25, 2019  

In a strange twist in a case involving the near fatal beating of a Lakota woman last year, a federal judge has reversed a jury’s conviction last month of a Pine Ridge Reservation man who allegedly witnessed the assault.

In an order filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange reversed a jury’s March 15 guilty verdict against Weldon Two Bulls for lying to a federal agent about whether he saw Sheena Between Lodges get beaten. The jury had deadlocked on a second charge against Two Bulls of being an accessory after the fact, a charge based on the accusation that Two Bulls lied in attempt to protect from prosecution the people who assaulted Between Lodges.

In a 24-page opinion, Lange wrote that the jury should not have convicted Two Bulls because it lacked sufficient evidence to do so. He said much of the jury’s decision was based on the prosecutor’s assertion that Two Bulls had told Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Agent Wesley Pacenza that he had been too drunk to remember what happened to Between Lodges.

The only time that Two Bulls spoke to Pacenza was during a 28-minute interview on November 6 outside the rural Pine Ridge home where an ambulance crew had found Between Lodges the day before. Lange said his office transcribed and studied the interview with Two Bulls, finding Two Bulls never stated that he had been too drunk to remember the alleged assault against Between Lodges.

“No reasonable jury properly instructed on the law could conclude that Defendant made a false statement that he ‘was too intoxicated to recall what happened to Sheena Between Lodges’ to Agent Pacenza when the recording of the only interview by Agent Pacenza of Defendant contains no such statement,” the judge wrote.

Lange also affirmed the lower court judge’s decision to declare a mistrial related to the charge against Two Bulls of being an accessory after the fact. And the judge warned prosecutors against retrying Two Bulls on that charge.

“The Government should think long and hard about whether retrial of the accessory after the fact charge serves the interests of justice in this case,” he wrote.

Between Lodges was so severely beaten that she lay in a coma for several days before medical personnel found her and took her to the Pine Ridge Hospital. She suffered a brain injury and has been forced to use a wheelchair following the assault. She has no memory of the attack.

During the trial against Two Bulls in March, Between Lodges’ brother and his wife told jurors that Two Bulls had visited their home and informed them that Between Lodges’ boyfriend Gilbert Lakota and Lakota’s sister, Lily Larvie, had beaten her up.

The case against Two Bulls was especially interesting because prosecutors have not charged Lakota or Larvie with assaulting Between Lodges.

The judge wrote that he believed Between Lodges had been beaten and he offered a stark and detailed description of the events leading to her injuries, citing the sworn statements of people who had interacted with her, Lakota and Larvie in the days leading up to the assault.

According to the judge’s opinion, Lakota called 911 around 7 a.m. Monday, November 5, saying Between Lodges had been asleep for two or three days and wouldn’t wake up. First responders found her unconscious in her bedroom and took her to the hospital.

Hospital staff noticed bruising on her face, shoulders, neck, arm and leg and requested the help of police before sending Between Lodges on to Rapid City, South Dakota for brain surgery.

Law enforcement saw no signs of any struggle within Between Lodges’ home.

On November 6, her brother Elgin Young Bear contacted police and told them what Two Bulls had said to him and his wife, Wylene Two Lance, on Sunday, November 4.

Two Bulls allegedly told the couple that Lakota and Larvie had been "ganging" (meaning beating on) Between Lodges and that he had to throw off Larvie.

Two days later, Young Bear talked with Two Bulls again, but this time, Two Bulls told him that Between Lodges had been dropped three times while being carried into her home when she was drunk.

Later, during the interview with Agent Pacenza, Two Bulls said he didn’t know what happened to Between Lodges but that he had heard she had been dropped while being carried into her home.

He told Pacenza that he had borrowed Between Lodges’ vehicle on Friday, November 2, and that she was fine other than a bruise to her face at that time. He said she was unconscious on her bed when he returned the vehicle two days later.

During her own testimony at trial last month, Between Lodges said Lakota had hit her and even strangled her once, and that Lakota once had to stop Larvie from hitting her the previous March. Between Lodges told jurors that Larvie had been violent to her on a few occasions.

Two of Between Lodges’ friends also testified in Two Bulls’ trial, offering a depressing account of the days leading up to the Lakota woman’s injuries.

They told jurors that Between Lodges, Lakota and others had been drinking for much of the week. On several occasions, they said they saw Between Lodges’ drunk and passed out in her Dodge Durango, and that others had to carry her into her home, though neither of the friends who testified said they saw anyone drop Between Lodges.

One of the friends said Lakota contacted him on Sunday, November 4, to tell him Between Lodges’ hadn’t woken up from the night before. The friend visited their home and found Between Lodges unconscious in her bedroom and assumed she was just sleeping as she often did after a night of heavy drinking.

The friend said Two Bulls arrived at the home of Between Lodges and Lakota that Sunday evening to return Between Lodges’ Dodge Durango.

During a November 21 interview with another BIA agent, Two Bulls denied telling Young Bear or Two Lance that he had witnessed Lakota and Larvie beating up Between Lodges.

"I don't know anything about that,” Two Bulls said during that interview. “I never seen him try to beat her up during that time."

Judge Lange said Two Bulls never told investigators that he had been too drunk to remember what happened to Between Lodges, only that he had been heavily intoxicated for much of the time he had taken her vehicle. But Two Bulls repeatedly told the BIA agents he hadn’t seen Between Lodges being beaten, only that Lakota had told him that she had been dropped while being carried into her home.

“Defendant's report of intoxication affecting his memory of when he borrowed and returned the car probably were truthful statements,” the judge wrote.

Prosecutors in Rapid City have not indicated whether they plan to retry Two Bulls on the charge of lying to an investigator.

Defendant found guilty in connection with brutal beating of Lakota woman (April 1, 2019)
Defendant goes to trial in connection with brutal beating of Lakota woman (March 13, 2019)
Lakota woman remains in critical condition after brutal attack (November 13, 2018)
Lakota woman fighting for her life after brutal beating (November 9, 2018)