Wilbur G. Johnson

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 Rapi ...