south dakota | My Crime Library

Matthew Wittrock Teen Killer Murders Father

Matthew Wittrock was a fifteen year old from South Dakota when the teen killer would murder his father and attempted to murder his father’s girlfriend. According to court documents Matthew Wittrock would wait for his father to arrive home and would ambush the man shooting him multiple times. Matthew Wittrock would then attack his fathers girlfriend who would thankfully survive her injuries. Matthew Wittrock would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to thirty years in prison with ten being suspended for parole

Matthew Wittrock 2023 Information

Age 17

Race White

Gender Male

Wittrock, Matthew

DOC Number #65370

Current Facility Virtual Facility (SD Offender elsewhere)

Matthew Wittrock More News

A Sioux Falls teen was sentenced Monday for killing his father and beating the man’s girlfriend afterward.

Matthew Wittrock was sentenced to 30 years with 10 years suspended for first-degree manslaughter by Judge Susan Sabers at the Minnehaha County Courthouse.

The incident happened at about 7:30 p.m. on May 5, 2020, when Sioux Falls police officers responded to the 700 block of South Gordon Drive. Craig Ronald Wittrock, 42, was found dead, and a woman whose identity was not released at the time was injured.

The injured woman was revealed to be Teri Handel at Monday’s sentencing hearing. She was in a relationship with Craig Wittrock at the time of his death.

Matthew Wittrock was initially charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of manslaughter and aggravated assault as well as kidnapping, according to indictment records obtained by the Argus Leader.

He had a change of plea hearing on Sept. 13, 2021, where all his charges were dropped after he pled guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“Sorry I put you all through this, especially those who loved my father,” Matthew Wittrock said during the hearing.

The 17-year-old appeared in court nearly two years after he shot his father to death. That day, Wittrock armed himself and waited for his father and Handel to get home. He shot his father and then shot Handel when she tried to offer help, Sabers said.

Matthew Wittrock then beat Handel over the head with the gun, causing a bend in the firearm. He held her hostage for hours as Handel pleaded with him to get help for his father, Sabers said.

During that time, Matthew Wittrock worked on fixing his gun that had jammed.

Handel appeared in court and although she initially wasn’t going to speak, she did. She said she now suffers from PTSD induced by Matthew Wittrock’s attack and hasn’t been able to maintain a job since.

“I really miss Craig, but I think Matthew’s a good kid,” Handel said to end her statement.

Sabers addressed several concerns she had with Matthew Wittrock before handing out her sentence. She said Matthew Wittrock’s family have all written her, describing him as a “good kid.”

The issue as Sabers saw it was that there was no reason for the attack.

The 17-year-old was said to have been suffering from major depressive disorder, PTSD, attachment disorder and OCD, but the night of the incident there wasn’t a definitive trigger.

“The fact there was no defined trigger I do think makes you a danger to the community,” Sabers said.

Matthew Wittrock’s mother has been out of his life for nine years after she abandoned him, according to Sabers. After killing his dad, the then 15-year-old stole his father’s vehicle, loaded it with firearms and said he planned to go to New Mexico and look for his mother.

Many of Matthew Wittrock’s mental health issues stem from trauma and abuse endured by him while growing up with his mother and her ever-changing partners, Sabers said.

While addressing the court Monday, Matthew Wittrock said he’s grown a lot since being housed at the Juvenile Detention Center. One of his goals for the future was to contact his mother and establish a relationship with her.

That goal was questioned by Sabers, who said the woman didn’t’ deserve to have a relationship with Matthew Wittrock. She also said she found it strange he still wanted to have a relationship with her.

“That scares the shit out of me,” Sabers said. “I have to take that into account.”

Another thing Sabers said bothered her was Matthew Wittrock’s calmness during his addressing of the court.

The judge said the only tools at her disposal to deal with Matthew Wittrock were numbers thus leaving her with limited options.

In the end, she sentenced the 17-year-old to 30 years in prison with 10 years suspended. For the aggravated assault charge, he was given 15 years with all of them suspended to run concurrently with his manslaughter sentence.

https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2022/01/31/matthew-wittrock-sentenced-2020-father-manslaughter-shot-assault-motive/9290574002/

Frequently Asked Questions

Matthew Wittrock Now

Matthew Wittrock is in the South Dakota Juvenile system

Matthew Wittrock Release Date

Matthew Wittrock is not eligible for release until 2040

Donald Moeller South Dakota Execution

Donald Moeller was executed by the State of South Dakota for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a nine year old girl. According to court documents Donald Moeller would kidnap nine year old Becky O’Connell when she was leaving a convenience store. Becky O’Connell would be sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Donald Moeller would be arrested after his DNA tied him to the murder. Donald Moeller would be sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on October 30 2012

Donald Moeller More News

A South Dakota inmate was executed Tuesday night for the 1990 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl who disappeared after leaving her home to buy sugar at a nearby store so she could make lemonade.

Donald Moeller, 60, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, marking South Dakota’s second execution this month in an unusual surge for a state that has carried out just two other death sentences since 1913. He was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m.

Moeller kidnapped Becky O’Connell from a Sioux Falls convenience store, where she’d gone to buy sugar to make lemonade at home. He drove her to a secluded area near the Big Sioux River, then raped and stabbed the girl. Her naked body was found the next day; investigators said her throat had been slashed.

Becky’s mother, Tina Curl, has been steadfast in her wish to watch Moeller die, even raising funds to cover the expenses to make the 1,400-mile trip from her home in New York state to Sioux Falls for the execution.

“He watched my daughter take her last breath. I want to watch him take his last breath,” Curl told The Associated Press in August. “I’m doing this for her and for me.”

Moeller initially was convicted in 1992, but the state Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that improper evidence was used at trial. He was again convicted and sentenced to die in 1997. The state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, and Moeller lost appeals on both the state and federal levels

Though he fought his conviction and sentence for years, Moeller in July he said he was ready to accept death as the consequence of his actions. He admitted for the first time in court that he killed the girl.

“I killed. I deserve to be killed,” he said.

But even as Moeller insisted he was ready to die, several motions were filed on his behalf to stop the execution despite his protests.

Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a pending suit challenging South Dakota’s execution protocol after Moeller insisted he wanted no part of it. Moeller also distanced himself from a motion filed by a woman with loose family ties who argued that his decades in solitary confinement had made him incapable of voluntarily accepting his fate. That motion was dismissed Monday.

Moeller’s execution comes just two weeks after the Oct. 15 execution of Eric Robert for killing South Dakota prison guard Ronald “R.J.” Johnson during a failed escape attempt. Before that, the last execution in South Dakota was in 2007, when Elijah Page died by lethal injection for the murder of Chester Allan Poage, who was abducted and killed in a scheme to burglarize his mother’s home.

In 1947, George Sitts was electrocuted for killing two law enforcement officers. And in 1913, Joseph Rickman was hanged for the murder of a woman and her daughter.

They were among 17 inmates executed since 1877, the oldest of which came during the days of the Dakota Territory.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-dakota-executes-donald-moeller-for-rape-murder-of-9-year-old-girl/

Eric Robert South Dakota Execution

Eric Robert was executed by the State of South Dakota for the murder of a prison guard. According to court documents Eric Roberts and Rodney Berget during an escape attempt would murder a prison guard, Ronald “RJ” Johnson with a metal pipe. Eric Robert and Rodney Berget would be both sentenced to death. Rodney Berget was executed in 2018. Eric Robert would be executed by lethal injection on October 16, 2012

Eric Robert More News

A South Dakota man who beat a prison guard with a pipe and covered his head in plastic wrap to kill him during a failed escape attempt was put to death Monday, in the state’s first execution since 2007.

Eric Robert, 50, received lethal injection and was pronounced dead at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. He is the first South Dakota inmate to die under the state’s new single-drug lethal injection method, and only the 17th person to be executed in the state or Dakota Territory since 1877.

Robert was put to death in the same prison where he killed guard Ronald “RJ” Johnson during an escape attempt on April 12, 2011. Robert was serving an 80-year sentence on a kidnapping conviction when he tried to break out with fellow inmate Rodney Berget, 50.

Johnson was working alone the morning of his death — also his 63rd birthday — in a part of the prison known as Pheasantland Industries, where inmates work on upholstery, signs, custom furniture and other projects. Authorities said the inmates beat Johnson with a pipe, covered his head in plastic wrap and left his body on the floor.

Robert then put on Johnson’s pants, hat and jacket and approached the prison’s west gate. With his head down, he pushed a cart loaded with two boxes. Berget was hidden in one of the boxes, according to a report filed by a prison worker after the slaying

Other guards became suspicious as the men got closer to the gate. When confronted, Robert beat one guard; other guards quickly arrived and detained both inmates.

Months later, Robert told a judge his only regret was that he hadn’t killed more guards. He pleaded guilty to Johnson’s slaying and asked to be sentenced to death, telling a judge last October that he would otherwise kill again. He never appealed his sentence and even tried to bypass a mandatory state review in hopes of expediting his death.

Berget also has pleaded guilty in the killing, but has appealed his death sentence. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, 47, was given a life sentence for providing materials used in the slaying.

Robert’s execution could be the first of two in as many weeks. Donald Moeller is scheduled to be put to death the week of Oct. 28 for the 1990 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Robert had been on death row only for about a year, Moeller has been there for more than two decades. Only three other inmates currently are on the state’s death row.

South Dakota’s last execution before Monday took place in 2007, and that was the first in the state for 60 years.

“You have few people on death row, few executions, and then you have this coincidence of cases coming all at once,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. “When people waive appeals, their cases start to move more quickly.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/15/sd-death-row-inmate-to-be-executed-monday/1635505/

Briley Piper South Dakota Death Row

Briley Piper is the only death row inmate in South Dakota. Briley Piper was sentenced to death for the murder of Chester Poage. According to court documents Elijah Page, Briley Piper, and Darrell Hoadley,would rob the Poage home after they tortured and murdered Chester Poage. Elijah Page and Briley Piper would be sentenced to death while Darrell Hoadley would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. E;ijah Page was executed on July 11, 2007.

South Dakota Death Row Inmate List

Briley Piper 2021 Information

Age 41

Race White

Gender Male

Hair Color Red or Auburn

Eye Color Green

Height 5′ 8″ Weight 221 lbs.

Alias(es) Piper, Briley

Briley Piper Other News

On March 12-13, 2000, Briley Piper and two others, Elijah Page (Page) and Darrell Hoadley (Hoadley), kidnapped and killed Chester Allan Poage (Poage) so that they could steal property from the home Poage lived in with his mother and sister in Spearfish, South Dakota.

[¶ 3.] Briley Piper, Page and Hoadley, all of whom were friends with each other and with Poage, met up with Poage at approximately 8:00 p.m. on March 12, 2000. Piper had informed another friend, Nathan Whartman (Whartman), that Poage would give him a ride to the Job Corps facilities. Poage complied with the request for the ride, and he, along with Piper, Page and Hoadley, picked Whartman up and dropped Whartman off at Job Corps. The remaining four then went to Poage’s house and played PlayStation games.¹ While there, Piper, Page and Hoadley convinced Poage to leave his house, and the four left in Poage’s 1997 Chevrolet Blazer.² All four ended up at the house in which Piper, Page and Hoadley had been staying.

[¶ 4.] Once there, Page exposed a .22 caliber pistol, which he had stolen from Poage’s mother’s room at the Poage residence, and ordered Poage to get on the floor. Once Poage was on the floor, Piper kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. While Poage was unconscious, he was tied up with a cord and sat upright in a chair. After he regained consciousness, Piper laid a tire iron across his feet to prevent him from moving, while Page made him drink a mixture containing crushed pills, beer and hydrochloric acid. During this time, Poage begged for an explanation as to why his alleged friends were doing this. In response, Page hit him in the face and told him to “shut up.” While Piper and Page discussed their plan to kill Poage, which included slitting the victim’s throat, Poage pleaded for his life and offered to give them everything he owned in exchange for his release. At this point, Page asked Poage for the personal identification number for his ATM card, and Poage gave it to him.

[¶ 5.] Next, the group escorted Poage to his own vehicle, placed him in the back seat and threatened his life if he attempted to escape. Briley Piper got in the driver’s seat. The group stopped at a gas station, and then Piper drove the group to Higgins Gulch in the Black Hills, a wooded area about seven miles away from the house where Piper, Page, and Hoadley had been staying. Upon arriving at Higgins Gulch, the group forced Poage out of his vehicle into twelve-inch deep snow. Poage was forced by Piper and Page to take off all of his clothes, except his tank-top style undershirt, shoes, and socks in temperatures of about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit. The three young men then took Poage’s wallet.

[¶ 6.] Thereafter, the three tried holding Poage down and covering him up with snow. Poage was then escorted to an icy creek, just over fifty feet from the road they had driven on to reach the gulch. Page and Piper admitted kicking him numerous times in various parts of his body and head. At one point in the attack, Poage did try to escape, but upon Piper’s urging, Page recaptured him and continued to beat his near-naked body in the freezing temperatures. Poage was also made to lie in the icy creek water for a lengthy period of time. Piper later stated he had kicked Poage at the gulch a couple of times in the body and a couple of times in the head. Throughout the beatings, Piper laughed and said things like “Ohh ․ like that would suck” and “Ah, that’s got to hurt.”

[¶ 7.] At one point, Poage asked to be let into his vehicle to warm himself. The record indicates that Poage said he preferred to bleed to death in the warmth rather than freeze to death in the cold. Piper agreed to grant his request, so long as he washed the blood off of his body in the creek. After rinsing in the icy waters, Piper refused to let him warm himself in the vehicle. Instead, they continued beating and taunting Poage.

[¶ 8.] Next, Poage was dragged back into the creek, where Briley Piper and the others attempted to drown the victim. The co-defendants’ stories diverge somewhat on the final fate of Poage. One witness stated that Piper admitted standing on Poage’s neck to help Hoadley drown him, then Piper stabbed him twice or more-once by the ear and then under the chin. Piper’s brief contends he did not participate in the drowning attempts or stabbings, but instead that he went back to Poage’s vehicle. After the drowning attempts, stabbings, beatings and stoning, Poage was still moving. According to Piper, Hoadley threw the final rock that killed Poage, but at that point Piper was not there to personally witness this act. Both Page and Hoadley admitted they jointly dropped large rocks on Poage’s head, actions which they believed finally killed him. Approximately four hours after the three kidnapped Poage, and about three hours after the beatings began at the gulch, Poage was left for dead in the creek.

[¶ 9.] Piper drove the three away from the secluded area in Poage’s vehicle, and they proceeded to discuss how they would divide Poage’s property. They went to Poage’s house and stole numerous items. The group then drove to Hannibal, Missouri, together. There, they visited Piper’s sister, but upon her refusal to let them stay, they headed back to South Dakota. The group returned to Rapid City, South Dakota, using Poage’s ATM card for cash and pawning some of Poage’s property throughout the trip.³ Eventually, the three went their own ways. Piper ultimately ended up in his home state of Alaska.⁴

[¶ 10.] On April 22, 2000, over a month after the three left Poage for dead, a woman who owned land near Higgins Gulch spotted what was later determined to be Poage’s remains in the creek. His body was found, clad in a sleeveless t-shirt, socks and shoes. Donald Habbe (Habbe), a forensic pathologist from the Clinical Laboratory in Rapid City, performed an autopsy on the body. Habbe discovered numerous head injuries and stab wounds. Some examples of the head injuries inflicted included: stab wound to the jugular vein, another stab wound through the skull, and a complex, spider-web shaped skull fracture that measured five inches. Habbe determined the cause of death was the “stab wounds and the blunt force injury to the head.”

[¶ 11.] After the body was discovered, Piper became a suspect. Law enforcement from South Dakota tracked him down in Alaska, questioned him and arrested him for first degree murder. While still in Alaska, he gave a detailed statement describing Poage’s murder and his participation in it to South Dakota law enforcement. He was subsequently extradited to South Dakota. Piper was then jailed in Lawrence County, South Dakota. He later pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, first degree felony murder; kidnapping; robbery in the first degree; burglary in the first degree; and grand theft. A sentencing hearing began on January 17, 2001, and lasted for three days. At the hearing, the State argued for the death sentence, and Piper argued against imposing such a sentence. After argument, the circuit court ruled that the death penalty would be imposed for the first degree murder conviction. Thereafter, co-defendant Page also pleaded guilty to the same charges, and after an extensive sentencing hearing, he was also sentenced to death by the same judge. Hoadley then stood trial in front of a jury on the same charges.⁵ He was found guilty of the same charges but the jury sentenced him to life in prison. See State v. Hoadley, 2002 SD 109, 651 N.W.2d 249. Thereafter, Piper appealed to this Court.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sd-supreme-court/1107292.html

South Dakota Death Row Inmate List

South Dakota Death Row for men is located at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. The South Dakota Death Row for women is located at the South Dakota Women’s Prison in Pierre. South Dakota method of execution is lethal injection

South Dakota Death Row Inmates

Briley Piper