Two Redby Men Sentenced in Connection with November Killing

MINNEAPOLIS—Yesterday in federal court in Fergus Falls, two men from the town of Redby were sentenced in connection with the November 3, 2010, killing of one man and the wounding of two others on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim sentenced Donald Leigh Clark, Jr., age 23, to 120 months in prison on one count of discharge of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, specifically, the shooting of Julian Keith DeMarrias. Clark’s co-defendant, Cruze Anthony White, age 23, was sentenced to 80 months on one count of voluntary manslaughter, for aiding and abetting Clark.

The men were indicted on January 19, 2011, and pleaded guilty on November 17, 2011. A law enforcement affidavit filed in the case states that on November 3, 2010, Red Lake tribal police responded to a reported shooting and found three adult men in and around a vehicle, all with gunshot wounds. They were taken to Indian Health Services for treatment, where DeMarrias was pronounced dead. Clark was arrested in Redby on January 15, 2011, when law enforcement officers found him hiding in the backseat of a vehicle, under a blanket. White surrendered himself to authorities on January 24, 2011.

This case was 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 was 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.