A federal jury in Montana has found a man guilty of strangling a woman, pouring gasoline on her and setting her on fire in a horrifying attack that killed her two months later.
Dimarzio Swade Sanchez, 20, was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday for killing Roylynn Rides Horse, 28, in June 2016 on the Crow Indian Reservation after they got into a row while driving home from a bar.
Sanchez faces a mandatory life sentence at his March 29 sentencing.
Jurors on Thursday convicted 20-year-old Dimarzio Swade Sanchez, left, of first-degree murder in the June 2016 death of 28-year-old Roylynn Rides Horse, right
Video courtesy KTVQ News
Co-defendant Angelica Whiteman pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree murder for beating and strangling Rides Horse on the Crow Indian Reservation.
Prosecutors say the group was drinking and driving around when Whiteman and Rides Horse got into a fight that continued after Sanchez parked the car.
A passerby found Rides Horse 14 hours after the attack suffering from third-degree burns over 45 percent of her body and severe frostbite on her legs.
On the night of the attack, Rides Horse got a ride home from a bar with Sanchez.
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Sanchez (left) set Rides Horse (right) on fire before driving off. She wasn't found until the following morning when she was suffering from third-degree burns and frostbite
Dimarzio Sanchez will be sentenced in March
Investigators say that following an argument between Whiteman and Rides Horse, Sanchez and Whiteman beat and tried to strangle her victim before dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire in a field east of Crow Agency, near the border of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
The assault attracted widespread attention from tribal leaders and state lawmakers and highlighted the difficulties of patrolling a reservation that covers more than 3,100 square miles along the Montana-Wyoming border.
It also stirred frustration among family members and others over the sparse details federal authorities were willing to release in the weeks after the attack.
In the time since the brutal murder, Crow tribal leaders and federal law enforcement officials have discussed ways to increase police patrols across the sparsely-populated reservation.
Among the options being considered is cross-deputizing officers from other law enforcement agencies to allow them to patrol on the reservation.
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