In the cold of a December morning in Rapid City, South Dakota, the body of Wilbur G. Johnson, a 42-year-old Native American male, was discovered in an alley in the 500 block of East Monroe Street on December 22, 2000. A member of the Yankton Sioux tribe, Johnson had been brutally beaten to death with a heavy, blunt object. The investigation into his death would quickly lead to two suspects who were with him in his final hours.
According to police accounts, Johnson had left a downtown Rapid City bar with two other individuals. Witnesses later reported seeing him running from two men not long after they left the establishment. The motive for the fatal attack was not immediately clear to authorities, who considered the possibility of a robbery as some of Johnson's personal items were missing. However, investigators also believed the murder could have been the result of a disagreement and that it was a premeditated act.
The investigation led to the swift arrest of James Ray “Jamie” Howard of Rapid City, who was taken into custody the day after Johnson's body was found and charged with first-degree murder. A second suspect, 23-year-old Adrian Gilbert Black Bear, also from Rapid City, was sought on a first-degree murder warrant. He was apprehended without incident on December 27 at a residence in Wanblee, following a search by law enforcement that spanned the Rapid City and Pine Ridge areas. Both men faced the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of the charges against them.
