William Alvin Wick, Jr. Sentenced in U.S. District Court

April 8, 2010 - The United States Attorney’s Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on April 7, 2010, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, WILLIAM ALVIN WICK, JR., a 28-year-old resident of Lame Deer, appeared for sentencing.

WICK was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 360 months, consecutive to another sentence

Special Assessment: $100

Supervised Release: 15 years

WICK was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to aggravated sexual abuse.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

On the evening of November 17, 2007, WICK, Ron Oneida Whiteman, Charles William Spotted Elk-Booth, Jr., and a juvenile male were driving around Lame Deer on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation drinking. The group saw the victim walking down the street and decided to pick her up, WICK was driving. The victim was staggering as she walked, because she was drunk. She got into the car with the men and sat in the back between Whiteman and Spotted Elk-Booth. They then bought more alcohol—vodka—and continued to drive around Lame Deer.

Whiteman and Spotted Elk-Booth made sexual advances toward the victim. WICK then drove to a remote area in the hills where Whiteman took off the victim’s pants and then raped her in the backseat.

After that rape, Whiteman took her out of the car and took off the rest of her clothes. She fell to the ground because she was too drunk to stand. Whiteman tried to force her to perform oral sex, but she resisted. The men placed her on the hood of the car, naked, and WICK and Spotted Elk-Booth held her arms down as Whiteman raped her again. Whiteman then threw her to the ground and Spotted Elk-Booth tried to rape her but could not get an erection. Whiteman and WICK put her on the hood again and WICK tried to rape her but could not get an erection, so he inserted his fingers into her vagina.

Following the assaults on the hood of the car, Whiteman and Spotted Elk-Booth carried her to the trunk. Before they put her in the trunk, naked, the juvenile raped her again while she was held by Whiteman and Spotted Elk-Booth in a bent-over position. She pleaded with the men not to put her in the trunk to no avail. They drove around with her in the trunk drinking whiskey until she was rescued from the trunk of the car by the police. The victim had extensive bruising on her legs, thighs, buttocks, arms and chest, and lacerations and abrasions on her body.

The victim has very little memory of what happened to her. She was drinking at home on November 17, 2007. She was drunk and she left her home at some point to walk to downtown Lame Deer. She then remembers a man telling her to perform oral sex and then her head was grabbed and the man was trying to force her mouth to his penis. She remembers WICK, who she knew because she was related to him by marriage, laughing at her as she told him to leave her alone. Then the trunk closed. She remembers being in the trunk of the car, and screaming and asking the men to leave her alone. She also remembers hearing WICK laughing and talking while she was in the trunk.

The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment and a sexual assault examination was performed. Swabs were taken from the hood of the car and from the trunk. DNA testing confirmed that the victim’s blood was on the hood and on the door of the trunk.

WICK provided two recorded statements. During the second statement, WICK admitted that he tried to have sexual intercourse with the victim but was unable to get an erection, so he stuck his fingers into her vagina. These acts occurred on the hood of the car. He admitted that he knew the victim was in the trunk of the car and that he drove around with her while she was in the trunk.

Whiteman and Spotted Elk-Booth pled guilty to federal charges and have been sentenced.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the “truth in sentencing” guidelines mandate that WICK will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, WICK does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for “good behavior.” However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek prosecuted the case for the United States.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.