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A teenager was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 30 years in federal prison for killing a man on the Crow Indian Reservation earlier this year. Orrin Richard Alden III previously admitted in U.S.
District Court to counts of second-degree murder and using a firearm in a violent crime. Just a day shy of his 18th birthday, he appeared at the federal courthouse in downtown Billings dressed in a short-sleeved shirt decorated with pink palm trees. “I apologize,” Alden said when given the chance to speak before his sentencing.
“I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m sorry. On May 5, 2024, first responders recovered the body of an 18-year-old man from the Little Big Horn River from where it flowed through Crow Agency on the Crow Reservation. The man identified in court documents as John Doe had been shot twice: once in the torso and once in the head.
About a week earlier, video surveillance showed Alden walking with John Doe and others past the Little Big Horn College Wellness Center in Crow Agency. Further investigation revealed Alden and John Doe separated from the group. Alden, armed with a rifle, shot John Doe twice and took his backpack, court documents said.
Back at his home in Crow Agency, Alden took off his clothes and put them in a black bag. He then stashed both at an abandoned property near his house. At the time of the shooting, Alden had already been sentenced for second-degree murder after killing someone on the Crow Reservation in July 2022.
Following an investigation on the part of the FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Alden in September of this year. He immediately reached a plea agreement with the federal government. During his sentencing Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys lamented Alden’s brutal childhood.
Finding an appropriate sentence for Alden was a conundrum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek said in her argument, as Alden’s upbringing was marred by trauma and substance abuse.
However, that trauma did nothing to explain why he killed a man. Suek asked U.S.
District Judge Susan P. Watters for a 40-year sentence. “The kid never had a chance,” said Federal Defender Steven Babcock, who represented Alden throughout the case.
Alden’s actions were serious, Babcock said, but Alden accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty. As a young man, he said, Alden still had a chance to learn from his mistakes. A 40-year sentence, Babcock argued, would be akin to locking Alden up and throwing away the key.
Alden won’t be rehabilitated in a federal prison, Babcock said, likening it to a gladiator school. Babcock argued for Watters to give Alden a 20-year sentence. “There really no significant mental health diagnosis to explain why Mr.
Alden has killed two people,” Watters said prior to issuing her sentence. Watters also commented on Alden having a dreadful childhood in which he was removed from his parents’ home at 10 years old due to their substance abuse. He never returned, and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at 13.
Even still, Watters said many other Native American children survive such abuse without committing murder. The public, she said, had to be protected from Alden’s decision-making. In September, the FBI announced that an investigation was underway in identifying human remains found on the Crow Reservation.
Without disclosing the exact nature of the investigation, the bureau did confirm that both the BIA and the Billings Police Department were involved. To the east on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, the town of Lame Deer is still shaken by the death of an 8-year-old boy who was shot and killed last month. The death of Marquez "Quez" Ontiveros sparked renewed demands from the reservations residents for improved public safety, Lee Newspapers reported.
At the conclusion of Alden’s 355-month sentence, Watters is also requiring that he remain under federal supervision for five years. Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Public Safety Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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