Pine Ridge Man Sentenced for Murder

United States Attorney Randolph J. Seiler announced that a Pine Ridge, South Dakota, man convicted of Second Degree Murder and Conspiracy to Commit Assault was sentenced on November 22, 2017, by Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken, U.S. District Court.

Calmer Cottier, age 26, was sentenced to 210 months in custody, followed by 5 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund as to the Second Degree Murder charge.  He was sentenced to 120 months in custody, followed by 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund as to the Conspiracy to Commit Assault charge.  The times of custody and supervised release are to run concurrently to each other.

Cottier was indicted by a federal grand jury on December 15, 2015.  He was subsequently found guilty following a trial in Federal District Court in Rapid City on June 9, 2017.

The conviction stems from Cottier and others striking the victim with a cinder block, kicking the victim in the head and face, beating the victim with a stick, and striking the victim in the back of his head with a machete on July 12, 2015.  The cause of death was multiple blunt trauma to the head, including a skull fracture and hemorrhaging.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Poppen and Kathryn N. Rich prosecuted the case.

Cottier was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.