Elias Richard was sentenced Monday (Nov. 7, 2022) to life in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for killing Vernall Marshall on Christmas Eve in 2020.
The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office says the 23 year old Richard was convicted of Second Degree Murder by a Pennington County jury in July 2022 following a four-day trial.
Court information says on December 24, 2020, Richard met Marshall in Rapid City on the pretext of selling him drugs. The purported drug transaction devolved into an altercation during which Richard shot Marshall twice with a .25 caliber handgun, killing Marshall.
“Elias Richard will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole,” said Assistant Attorney General Trevor Thielen who prosecuted the case for the State. “He won’t have the chance to inflict any additional violence in our communities.”
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