Home Minneapolis Press Releases 2010 Redby Couple Sentenced for Second-Degree Murder
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Redby Couple Sentenced for Second-Degree Murder

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 29, 2010
  • District of Minnesota (612) 664-5600

Earlier today in federal court in St. Paul, a 24-year-old woman from Redby, a community on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, was sentenced in connection to the murder of a 21-year-old man on October 1, 2009. United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Natalie Renee Delores Ann Smith to 121 months in prison on one count of aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. Yesterday, Kelly James Maxwell, age 28, was sentenced to 222 months on one count of aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. Maxwell and Smith were indicted on November 10, 2009, and pled guilty in March of 2010.

After today’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones said, “Violence of this nature will not be tolerated anywhere, not within our urban neighborhoods, our rural communities, or our tribal nations. Irrespective of where they live, all of our citizens deserve to be safe.”

In their plea agreements, Maxwell and Smith admitted they aided each other in the murder of Curtis Leslie Charles Heinonen, a resident of the Red Lake Indian Reservation. 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.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Red Lake Tribal Police Department. 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 United States Attorney’s Office.

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