Jesus Vance was a 20-year-old Hispanic/Latino man from Rapid City, South Dakota, who was survived by his parents, five brothers, and three sisters. Formerly of Takini, he was remembered by family and friends at services in Eagle Butte and Rapid City following his death.
On the afternoon of April 9, 2021, a call reporting shots fired sent police to the South Dakota Rose Inn. Officers arrived around 4:15 p.m. and found a chaotic scene.
Outside room 212, they located 37-year-old Jake Williams, who had sustained several injuries, including multiple cuts to his head. Inside the motel room, they discovered Jesus Vance, who had died from gunshot wounds. In the early days of the case, authorities stated that the shooting appeared to be drug-related.
The investigation quickly expanded beyond a simple shooting. Using surveillance footage, police identified vehicles leaving the motel and determined that a group of people was involved. The initial arrests were not for homicide, but for crimes committed against Williams, who police said had been kidnapped and assaulted. Authorities eventually implicated four people in the incident: William Long, Gilbert Reyna, Tracy Laughlin, and Travis Nelson.
As the case progressed, a grand jury returned indictments against all four, charging them with aiding and abetting first-degree murder in connection with Vance’s death. They also faced charges of aiding and abetting second-degree kidnapping and aggravated assault for the attack on Williams. The defendants’ attorneys argued that since they were all charged together, they should be tried together.
The case took a dramatic turn in October 2021 when Seventh Circuit Judge Jeffrey Connolly dismissed the first-degree murder charges against all four co-defendants. The judge’s ruling stated that it was Jake Williams, the man who had been kidnapped and assaulted, who shot and killed Vance during the confrontation. The court found that Vance himself had been involved in the kidnapping of Williams, and that since none of the four co-defendants had fired the fatal shot, the state could not pursue a felony-murder charge against them.
With the murder charges dropped, the remaining defendants began to resolve their cases. In November 2021, Tracy Laughlin pleaded guilty to accessory to a crime, admitting in court that she had helped the other defendants after the incident. The following year, in June 2022, William Long reached a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting aggravated assault. As part of his deal, an additional charge of aiding and abetting second-degree kidnapping was dismissed. Long’s plea was the last reported development in the case.
