BILLINGS- The man convicted of torturing and murdering a Crow Agency woman in 2016 will spend the rest of his life in prison, and an accomplice was handed a 40-year sentence Friday.
Dimarzio Swade Sanchez, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder of Roylynn RidesHorse, 28, in December in federal court.
His accomplice, Angelica Whiteman, had previously pleaded guilty in August 2017 to aiding and abetting first-degree murder and cooperated with federal prosecutors in the case against Sanchez. Her sentence also included five years of supervised release.
U.S. District Judge Susan Watters presided over the sentencing.
These were the facts of case, according to federal prosecutors:
Sanchez and Whiteman were part of a group who offered RidesHorse a ride home from the Kirby Saloon in Lame Deer in April 2016.
Sanchez drove RidesHorse and five others to a remote area of the Crow Reservation. During the drive, she was beaten in the back seat.
Whiteman dragged RidesHorse out of the vehicle and tried to strangle her until she lost consciousness.
Sanchez asked another passenger for a gas can from the car, then doused RidesHorse and set her on fire. She remained in the field for 14 hours before she was discovered with third-degree burns on 45 percent of her body and severe frost bite on her legs.
RidesHorse died two months later.
Another man, Frank Sanchez, pleaded guilty last spring to accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the case.
