Law

Woman on Pine Ridge Reservation charged for killing husband


A view of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Photo by Alf Leftwich

A woman from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Sarah Lilly Brown Eyes, 56, pleaded not guilty to the charge. According to a redacted indictment, she was operating a vehicle in Indian Country under the influence of alcohol.

"Such act was committed in a grossly negligent manner with actual knowledge that her conduct was a threat to the lives of others and with actual knowledge that would reasonably enable her to foresee the peril to which her act might subject another," the indictment states.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Brown Eyes ran over a man with the vehicle on June 24. The press release did not state the victim's name but an obituary identified him as her husband, Thomas Norman Brown Eyes Jr., who was 56 years old.

This isn't the first tragedy the family suffered this year. In May, the couple's son, Adam Norman Brown Eyes, died. He was 26 years old.

Get the Story:
Pine Ridge woman charged with killing a man (KELO-AM 10/9)

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