Federal Jury Convicts Redby Woman for Being an Accessory to Violent Red Lake Crime

MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court in Duluth, a jury found a 22-year-old Redby woman guilty of attempting to hide a suspect from federal agents. The jury convicted Jerilee Jane Head on one count of being an accessory after the fact. Head was indicted on March 8, 2011.

According to the indictment and the evidence presented at trial, on January 15, 2011, Head assisted her boyfriend, Donald Leigh Clark, Jr., in his attempt to elude authorities. Clark was hiding from law enforcement after being charged with the November 3, 2010, killing of one man and the wounding of two others on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Clark was ultimately found hiding under a blanket in the back seat of Head’s vehicle, after Head had tried but failed to lure federal agents away from the car.

On November 17, 2011, Clark, age 23, also of Redby, pleaded guilty to one count of discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, specifically during the shooting of Julian Keith DeMarrias.

For her crime, Head faces a potential maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison. United States District Court Judge Richard H. Kyle will determine her sentence at a future hearing. This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Red Lake Tribal Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force; and the U.S. Marshals Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifford B. Wardlaw.

Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a federal jurisdiction reservation, some of the crimes that occur there are investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Red Lake Tribal Police Department. Those cases are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.