Hardin man admits charge in fatal shooting on Crow Indian Reservation

BILLINGS — A Hardin man today admitted that he assisted in hindering an investigation into the 2023 shooting death of another man on the Crow Indian Reservation, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

The defendant, Garrell Robert Snell, 33, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact as charged in a superseding information. Snell faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for Aug. 8. Snell’s detention was continued pending further proceedings.

The government alleged in court documents that on Jan. 18, 2023 at Crow Agency, on the Crow Indian Reservation, a gunshot victim was driven to the emergency room at the IHS Crow/Northern Cheyenne Hospital, where the victim, a man, was pronounced dead upon arrival. The driver initially lied to law enforcement about where the driver had found the victim. Some days later, law enforcement learned that the victim was shot outside of a residence on Crow River Road.

Law enforcement obtained a federal search warrant and analyzed an SD card from exterior security cameras on the residence. Initially, nothing of any evidentiary value was recovered from the SD card. But in February 2024, the SD card was again analyzed, and video was recovered. The video does not show the shooting but contains footage before and after the shooting. The government further alleged that the video shows the victim lying on snow-covered ground in the yard of the residence before he was picked up and put into the vehicle used to take him to the hospital. After the vehicle leaves, the video shows Snell and another individual cleaning the snow-covered area where the victim had been lying by moving snow with a shovel, broom, hands and feet. The footage also appears to show Snell and the other individual picking up items from the snow-covered area. Two bullets retrieved from the victim’s body and shell casings recovered from the area that was cleaned by Snell and the other individual were determined to have been fired from the same gun. The gun has not been recovered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek is prosecuting the case. The FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs conducted the investigation.

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