The Daily Republic

Springfield government balanced budget, implemented financial safeguards following embezzlement discovery

The Daily Republic

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SPRINGFIELD — For the first time since it was discovered that its former finance officer spent two years embezzling money with an illegally obtained debit card, the city of Springfield balanced its budget in December.

Throughout that same time span, the city has worked to put new safeguards in place and reinforce existing checks and balances to ensure it won’t again see what current finance officer Tiffany Balvin told The Daily Republic was the perfect storm of improper documentation and a lax chain of command.

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Chamberlain man gets 22 years for manslaughter

The Daily Republic

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CHAMBERLAIN — A Chamberlain man was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 22 years in prison for killing a man in June 2018.

Nicholas Yellow Lodge, 20, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the first-degree manslaughter of 77-year-old David Hart in September and will be evaluated at the Human Services Center in Yankton prior to beginning his prison sentence.

In a 25-minute hearing at the Brule County Courthouse, Yellow Lodge was sentenced to 30 years in prison with eight years suspended and given credit for the year and a half he’s spent in jail since his arrest. He is the first person convicted of first-degree manslaughter in Brule County in more than 30 years.

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‘This family lost a mother,’ judge says, as Brinker gets 18 years for manslaughter

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A Mitchell man was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to serve 18 years in prison for killing his wife in 2017.

James Brinker, 41, was given credit for the more than two years he spent in the Davison County Jail between his October 2017 arrest for the death of 36-year-old Marie Brinker and his sentencing, where 22 years of a 40-year sentence were suspended as part of an agreement Brinker made with the state when he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Oct. 29.

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Justice for Jasmine: 10 years after teen’s murder, family fights to keep memory alive

The Daily Republic

Read the original story here. This is the third in a three-part series recounting the 2009 murder of 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara.

Jasmine Guevara loved life so much, she compared it to a carnival.

In 2009, Guevara was a busy, social teenager: she ran track and cross country, played hockey and was in the school marching band; she worked multiple jobs so she could pay for everything from clothes to her braces.

Guevara was also a fighter, and her mother said that began at birth. She and her twin brother, Manny, were born in California after 28 weeks of gestation, and Jasmine weighed 2 pounds, 6 ounces.

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Murder indictment was a ‘no-brainer’ in Guevara case

The Daily Republic

Read the original story here. This is the second in a three-part series recounting the 2009 murder of 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara.

Though Alexander Salgado and Maricela Diaz made confessions to police at virtually the same time and were arrested for 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara’s murder on the same day, their cases took different paths from that point forward.

The two were indicted by a grand jury the week following the murder.

“At the point that we presented the case, it was pretty much a no-brainer,” said Tyler Neuharth, a special agent with the Division of Criminal Investigation who worked on the Guevara case. “I don’t think they deliberated more than 10 minutes.”

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Guevara killers arrested within 48 hours of 2009 murder

The Daily Republic

Read the original story here. This is the first in a three-part series recounting the 2009 murder of 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara.

On the night of Nov. 10, 2009, a fire was reported in a rural area of western Hanson County.

Almost exactly 48 hours later, two people were in jail, having confessed to stabbing 16-year-old Jasmine Guevara and putting her in the trunk of her car before setting it ablaze with lighter fluid she had purchased earlier that night.

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SD women’s prison event turns adversity to empowerment

The Daily Republic

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PIERRE — Among the usual crowd of khaki and red outfits at the South Dakota Women’s Prison, hints of purple were seen on staff and incarcerated women alike on Thursday.

In the middle of National Domestic Violence Month, the small purple ribbons many wore were in honor of the first domestic and sexual violence-focused event held at the prison. Known as the Empowerment Campaign, the event at the Pierre facility brought in several people with expertise in childhood trauma, human trafficking, prostitution and other areas that disproportionately affect women.

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Mitchell manufacturing sees increase in female leadership

The Daily Republic

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Women currently make up less than a third of the national workforce in the historically male-dominated manufacturing industry, and that proportion is slightly lower in South Dakota.

But in Mitchell, several women now hold top leadership positions at local plants, and they said they’ve seen an increase in the number of women gaining interest and applying for jobs in manufacturing.

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Answering mental health needs on the farm

The Daily Republic

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Between the effects of record-breaking rainfall, claiming high levels of prevent plant and continued uncertainty over commodity prices, many of South Dakota’s farmers have become even more stressed than usual over the past year.

However, experts who participated in the South Dakota Farm and Ranch Stress Summit in Oacoma this week said producers’ willingness to talk openly about mental health and stressors is on the upswing, as well.

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Lake Andes, Yankton Sioux restrain flooding while searching for permanent solutions

The Daily Republic

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LAKE ANDES — More than two weeks after heavy rainfall left much of southeastern South Dakota flooded, people in and around Lake Andes are still trying to determine how to handle the water remaining in their area and the problems that water has caused.

Among those affected are members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, many of whom reside in tribal housing just south of the Lake Andes city limits. Those houses, Tribal Secretary Glenford “Sam” Sully told The Daily Republic on Thursday, have been exposed to water since March, and three-quarters will likely have to be replaced. Sully said there’s a sense of despair among tribal members.

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