Redby Couple Indicted for Murder

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against a 27-year-old Redby man and a 22- year-old Redby woman for allegedly murdering a 21-year-old man on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. In an indictment filed with the U.S. District Court earlier today, Kelly James Maxwell and Natalie Renee Delores Ann Smith were charged with one count of second-degree murder.

The indictment alleges Maxwell and Smith killed Curtis Leslie Charles Heinonen on October 1, 2009. According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, Heinonen’s unclothed body was found under some logs in the yard of a Redby residence. Officers discovered shoes, pants, and boxer-shorts two blocks away, in Smith’s yard.

If convicted, Maxwell and Smith face a potential maximum penalty of life in prison. All sentences are determined by a federal district court judge. This case is the result of an investigation by the Red Lake Tribal Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Clifford B. Wardlaw.

While nine of Minnesota’s 11 Indian reservations are subject to State criminal jurisdiction, the Red Lake and Nett Lake reservations turn to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution of their felonies. Even those these two reservations account for a very small portion of the population served by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Minnesota, their residents are victimized criminally at a rate about two and one-half times that of the State’s general population. Therefore, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is determined to prosecute Indian