OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A man was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday for a murder on the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation in Nebraska, federal prosecutors said.
Joseph Lloyd James, 49, of Norfolk had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the November 2018 death of Phyllis Hunhoff of Yankton, South Dakota, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release.
“Your conduct has taken a life and altered the lives of others,” Judge Brian C. Buescher told James before imposing sentence. “I hope you remember the pain you caused for everyday of your sentence which will be for the rest of your life.”
Hunhoff regularly traveled from her home to her mother’s home in Utica, South Dakota. Prosecutors said James and another man got into her car as she was leaving her mother’s home to drive home. The other man got out when they got to Norfolk, and James drove with Hunhoff to the Santee Sioux reservation in Nebraska.
Prosecutors said James stabbed and strangled her on the reservation, then set fire to her body and her vehicle to conceal evidence.
“This was a brutal, horrific, and senseless murder and we hope that today’s life sentence brings some small comfort for the family,” U.S. Attorney Joe Kelly said.
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