Redby Woman Sentenced for Being an Accessory to Violent Red Lake Crime

MINNEAPOLIS—Yesterday in federal court in Duluth, a 22-year-old Redby woman was sentenced for attempting to hide a suspect from federal agents. United States District Court Judge Richard H. Kyle sentenced Jerilee Jane Head to 24 months in prison on one count of being an accessory after the fact. Head was indicted on March 8, 2011, and was convicted on January 24, 2012. She was ordered to remain in custody.

According to the indictment and the evidence presented at trial, Head assisted her boyfriend, Donald Leigh Clark, Jr., in his attempt to elude authorities. Clark was hiding from law enforcement after being charged with the November 3, 2010 killing of one man and the wounding of two others on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Clark was ultimately found hiding under a blanket in the back seat of Head’s vehicle on January 15, 2011, after Head had tried but failed to lure federal agents away from the car.

On February 7, 2012, Clark, age 23, also of Redby, was sentenced to 120 months in prison on one count of discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, specifically during the shooting of Julian Keith DeMarrias.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Red Lake Tribal Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force; and the U.S. Marshals Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Clifford B. Wardlaw.

Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a federal-jurisdiction reservation, some of the crimes that occur there are investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Red Lake Tribal Police Department. Those cases are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.