RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A Pine Ridge man who pleaded guilty in the shooting death of another man on the reservation has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.
27-year-old Thomas Brewer said he made a “bad choice” while under the influence of drugs and alcohol and didn’t intend to kill Shawn Stevens. Brewer’s lawyer, John Dorsey, asked for a sentence of 10 years for discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence and one day for voluntary manslaughter.
Brewer pleaded guilty in May in a deal to dismiss his original second-degree murder charge. Brewer admitted to shooting Stevens with a pistol in the early morning hours of Nov. 30, 2016, during an argument in Pine Ridge. Stevens later died from his injuries.