Source: US FBI
RAPID CITY – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler has sentenced a Rapid City, South Dakota, man convicted of Voluntary Manslaughter. The sentencing took place on June 18, 2025.
Luke Standing Bear, age 19, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
A federal grand jury indicted Standing Bear in July 2024. He pleaded guilty on March 21, 2025.
On July 6, 2024, Standing Bear was in his neighborhood, in the Eastridge community in Pine Ridge, where he tried to fight several other men. The victim, who was one of the men whom Standing Bear tried to fight, told Standing Bear to go home. Standing Bear went back to his house and armed himself with a knife. Standing Bear returned to the scene of the first argument and got into another argument with the victim. Standing Bear was disarmed by bystanders, but then retrieved a second knife from his home and returned again to the street where the victim was standing. Standing Bear approached the victim after being insulted and stabbed the victim one time in the ribs. The victim took one step and collapsed to the ground. The knife had pierced several internal organs and the victim’s aorta. The victim survived the flight to the hospital in Rapid City but died during surgery.
This matter was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because the Major Crimes Act, a federal statute, mandates that certain violent crimes alleged to have occurred in Indian country be prosecuted in Federal court as opposed to State court.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox prosecuted the case.
Standing Bear was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.