South Dakota upholds death sentence in 2000 torture killing

[Sugar Cookie]

The South Dakota Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the state's only death row inmate, an Alaska man who pleaded guilty to taking part in a 2000 torture killing.

The justices said the arguments from Briley Piper, 39, of Anchorage, were “untimely" and didn't contest his guilt, the Rapid City Journal reported. Piper was sentenced to death after pleading guilty in the slaying of Chester Allen Poage, of Spearfish.

Another man who pleaded guilty to taking part in the slaying, Elijah Page, has already been executed. A third man, Darrell Hoadley, was convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison.

Piper argued in his latest appeal that his guilty pleas were not made voluntarily or intelligently, and he blamed his defense counsel for that.

However, the court said in its ruling Wednesday that Piper had “experienced" attorneys who provided sound advice when they told him that the evidence against him was overwhelming and that jurors would convict him. Piper also thought that taking responsibility could serve as a mitigating factor in his sentencing.

Prosecutors say Piper, Page and Hoadley were high on methamphetamine and LSD when they decided to burglarize Poage's home on March 12, 2000. After enticing Poage to go to his home, the men pointed a gun at him, forced him to the floor kicked him in the head until he was unconscious, then tied his hands behind his back, prosecutors said. When he awoke, they forced him to drink a mixture of crushed pills, beer and hydrochloric acid, authorities said.

The trio buried Poage naked in the snow but he was able to run away, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Poage's attackers then pushed him into a creek, where they kicked him and took turns stabbing him. Poage begged for his life, but his attackers stoned him to death, prosecutors said.

Page was executed in 2007.

South Dakota upholds death sentence in 2000 torture killing

The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of an Alaska man convicted for his part in the torture killing of a 19-year-old man nearly two decades ago

abcnews.go.com

Briley Piper................................................Already dead, Elijah Page Darrell Hoadle...

Chester Allen Poage

 

[Stebot]

Piper argued in his latest appeal that his guilty pleas were not made voluntarily or intelligently, and he blamed his defense counsel for that.
---
But.. but... his lawyers were dumb

 

[Sejanus]

Just fry him already

 

[Craygor]

Here's a detailed description of the murder from Piper's 2006 South Dakota's Supreme Court decision.

.....

[¶ 1.] Briley Piper (Piper) pleaded guilty to felony murder, kidnapping, robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, and grand theft.   After waiving his right to a jury trial and sentencing by jury, the circuit court sentenced Piper to death by lethal injection on the murder charge.   He now appeals and raises several issues for our review.   For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

[¶ 2.] On March 12-13, 2000, Piper and two others, Elijah Page (Page) and Darrell Hoadley (Hoadley), kidnapped and killed Chester Allan Poage (Poage) so that they could steal property from the home Poage lived in with his mother and sister in Spearfish, South Dakota.

[¶ 3.] Piper, Page and Hoadley, all of whom were friends with each other and with Poage, met up with Poage at approximately 8:00 p.m. on March 12, 2000.   Piper had informed another friend, Nathan Whartman (Whartman), that Poage would give him a ride to the Job Corps facilities.   Poage complied with the request for the ride, and he, along with Piper, Page and Hoadley, picked Whartman up and dropped Whartman off at Job Corps.   The remaining four then went to Poage's house and played PlayStation games.1  While there, Piper, Page and Hoadley convinced Poage to leave his house, and the four left in Poage's 1997 Chevrolet Blazer.2  All four ended up at the house in which Piper, Page and Hoadley had been staying.

[¶ 4.] Once there, Page exposed a .22 caliber pistol, which he had stolen from Poage's mother's room at the Poage residence, and ordered Poage to get on the floor.   Once Poage was on the floor, Piper kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious.   While Poage was unconscious, he was tied up with a cord and sat upright in a chair.   After he regained consciousness, Piper laid a tire iron across his feet to prevent him from moving, while Page made him drink a mixture containing crushed pills, beer and hydrochloric acid.   During this time, Poage begged for an explanation as to why his alleged friends were doing this.   In response, Page hit him in the face and told him to “shut up.”   While Piper and Page discussed their plan to kill Poage, which included slitting the victim's throat, Poage pleaded for his life and offered to give them everything he owned in exchange for his release.   At this point, Page asked Poage for the personal identification number for his ATM card, and Poage gave it to him.

[¶ 5.] Next, the group escorted Poage to his own vehicle, placed him in the back seat and threatened his life if he attempted to escape.   Piper got in the driver's seat.   The group stopped at a gas station, and then Piper drove the group to Higgins Gulch in the Black Hills, a wooded area about seven miles away from the house where Piper, Page, and Hoadley had been staying.   Upon arriving at Higgins Gulch, the group forced Poage out of his vehicle into twelve-inch deep snow.   Poage was forced by Piper and Page to take off all of his clothes, except his tank-top style undershirt, shoes, and socks in temperatures of about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.   The three young men then took Poage's wallet.

[¶ 6.] Thereafter, the three tried holding Poage down and covering him up with snow.   Poage was then escorted to an icy creek, just over fifty feet from the road they had driven on to reach the gulch.   Page and Piper admitted kicking him numerous times in various parts of his body and head.   At one point in the attack, Poage did try to escape, but upon Piper's urging, Page recaptured him and continued to beat his near-naked body in the freezing temperatures.   Poage was also made to lie in the icy creek water for a lengthy period of time.   Piper later stated he had kicked Poage at the gulch a couple of times in the body and a couple of times in the head.   Throughout the beatings, Piper laughed and said things like “Ohh ․ like that would suck” and “Ah, that's got to hurt.”

[¶ 7.] At one point, Poage asked to be let into his vehicle to warm himself.   The record indicates that Poage said he preferred to bleed to death in the warmth rather than freeze to death in the cold.   Piper agreed to grant his request, so long as he washed the blood off of his body in the creek.   After rinsing in the icy waters, Piper refused to let him warm himself in the vehicle.   Instead, they continued beating and taunting Poage.

[¶ 8.] Next, Poage was dragged back into the creek, where Piper and the others attempted to drown the victim.   The co-defendants' stories diverge somewhat on the final fate of Poage.   One witness stated that Piper admitted standing on Poage's neck to help Hoadley drown him, then Piper stabbed him twice or more-once by the ear and then under the chin.   Piper's brief contends he did not participate in the drowning attempts or stabbings, but instead that he went back to Poage's vehicle.   After the drowning attempts, stabbings, beatings and stoning, Poage was still moving.   According to Piper, Hoadley threw the final rock that killed Poage, but at that point Piper was not there to personally witness this act.   Both Page and Hoadley admitted they jointly dropped large rocks on Poage's head, actions which they believed finally killed him.   Approximately four hours after the three kidnapped Poage, and about three hours after the beatings began at the gulch, Poage was left for dead in the creek.

[¶ 9.] Piper drove the three away from the secluded area in Poage's vehicle, and they proceeded to discuss how they would divide Poage's property.   They went to Poage's house and stole numerous items.   The group then drove to Hannibal, Missouri, together.   There, they visited Piper's sister, but upon her refusal to let them stay, they headed back to South Dakota.   The group returned to Rapid City, South Dakota, using Poage's ATM card for cash and pawning some of Poage's property throughout the trip.3  Eventually, the three went their own ways.   Piper ultimately ended up in his home state of Alaska.4

[¶ 10.]  On April 22, 2000, over a month after the three left Poage for dead, a woman who owned land near Higgins Gulch spotted what was later determined to be Poage's remains in the creek.   His body was found, clad in a sleeveless t-shirt, socks and shoes.   Donald Habbe (Habbe), a forensic pathologist from the Clinical Laboratory in Rapid City, performed an autopsy on the body.   Habbe discovered numerous head injuries and stab wounds.   Some examples of the head injuries inflicted included:  stab wound to the jugular vein, another stab wound through the skull, and a complex, spider-web shaped skull fracture that measured five inches.   Habbe determined the cause of death was the “stab wounds and the blunt force injury to the head.”

[¶ 11.]  After the body was discovered, Piper became a suspect.   Law enforcement from South Dakota tracked him down in Alaska, questioned him and arrested him for first degree murder.   While still in Alaska, he gave a detailed statement describing Poage's murder and his participation in it to South Dakota law enforcement.   He was subsequently extradited to South Dakota.   Piper was then jailed in Lawrence County, South Dakota.   He later pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, first degree felony murder;  kidnapping;  robbery in the first degree;  burglary in the first degree;  and grand theft.   A sentencing hearing began on January 17, 2001, and lasted for three days.   At the hearing, the State argued for the death sentence, and Piper argued against imposing such a sentence.   After argument, the circuit court ruled that the death penalty would be imposed for the first degree murder conviction.   Thereafter, co-defendant Page also pleaded guilty to the same charges, and after an extensive sentencing hearing, he was also sentenced to death by the same judge.   Hoadley then stood trial in front of a jury on the same charges.5  He was found guilty of the same charges but the jury sentenced him to life in prison.   See State v. Hoadley, 2002 SD 109, 651 N.W.2d 249.   Thereafter, Piper appealed to this Court.   We remanded Piper's case to the circuit court for an intra-case proportionality review after a jury sentenced co-defendant Hoadley to life imprisonment.   The circuit court held a hearing and subsequently entered findings of fact and conclusions of law affirming Piper's death sentence.   He now appeals the following issues:

.....

STATE v. PIPER (2006) | FindLaw

Case opinion for SD Supreme Court STATE v. PIPER. Read the Court's full decision on FindLaw.

caselaw.findlaw.com

Here is a 2 part article written less than a year after the murder from Piper's co-conspirator Page where he says Piper was the "ring" leader.

Part 1:

Second of murder trio pleads guilty - tells new version

Elijah Page, 18, followed his co-defendant Briley Piper, 20, in pleading guilty. Piper pled guilty to charges on Thursday, Jan. 4.

www.bhpioneer.com

Part 2:

In his own words: murderer describes night of crime

He faced the question on Poage's health by Johnson as Page changed his plea to guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and grand theft.

www.bhpioneer.com

Then, 5 years later, right before Page was to be executed he recanted that Piper was in charge in a written death row confession and that Piper only assisted in the Poage's murder. All because Page threaten Piper and his family if he didn't.
https://murderpedia.org/male.P/p1/page-elijah-photos.htm

What a fucked up story, and all happened near the town of Deadwood.

 

[JackBurton]

I fucking LOVE that they pled guilty and still got the DP.

That's gotta be some shit lawyering. Why allow your client to plead out for nothing? Seems so exceptionally rare for a plea not to buy a LWOP instead of death. Fucking love it.

SD killed him fairly quickly as well.

Entire case marks as a very surprising example of pretty much everything going exactly how it should go in the justice system. More crimes should go this way. SD has a nice little history of this type of thing. James McVay pled guilty but mentally ill in 2014, jury said, "sorry bout your mental illness luck, but enjoy your death penalty nonetheless!". Gives me sexual pleasure reading abou such things.

Of course there's a shit ton of horrible crimes in that shit state that dont get near stiff enough a punishment as they deserve.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

With appeal options nearly exhausted, it appears likely the life of the state's lone death row inmate will end by way of lethal injection. The state Attorney General said that execution is likely by the end of this year.

Briley Piper was one of three convicted for the 2000 murder of Chester Allen Pogue in the Black Hills. Elijah Page was executed for his role in Pogue’s death in 2007, while another accomplice, Darrell Hoadley, was sentenced to life in prison.

Piper’s death sentence comes despite his guilty plea. As the alleged ringleader in the killing, prosecution pushed for capital punishment, which was granted by Judge Warren Johnson.

Attorney General and congressional candidate Marty Jackley told SDPB the appeals process has effectively closed.

“It has now reached a position in the case where I’m able to say, as Attorney General, there will likely be a carrying out of the sentence around November or December of this year,” Jackley said.

Piper has attempted several appeals since his conviction in 2001, but all were ultimately rejected. Jackley said there are few avenues left for Piper’s defense team.

“There is a little more work to be done at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals," Jackley said. "The state prevailed on six major issues recently. There is a short time period that he can ask for what you call an en banc hearing — that is, a hearing with all 11 active judges of the Eighth Circuit. It’s fairly rare. I don’t feel that will further delay it more than a few more days.”

Attorney General expects execution in Piper case by end of 2026

With appeal options nearly exhausted, it appears likely the life of the state's lone death row inmate will end by way of lethal injection. The state Attorney General said that execution is likely by the end of this year.

www.sdpb.org

This piece of shit should have already been executed

On the evening of March 12, 2000, Page, Piper, and Hoadley met with Poage at his family home in Spearfish. The four of them were acquainted and met to play video games together. Poage's mother and sister were in Florida on vacation at the time, meaning that the house was empty. Later on, the four of them left the house and drove in Poage's Chevrolet Blazer to the house where Page, Piper, and Hoadley were staying. Once inside, Page produced a .22 caliber pistol, which he had stolen from Poage's home, and ordered Poage to get on the floor. The three men planned to rob Poage's family home and did not want a witness to the crime.

As Poage lay on the floor, he was kicked repeatedly by Piper until he was unconscious. He was then tied up with a cord and placed in a chair. Piper put a tire iron across Poage's feet to prevent him from moving. When Poage regained consciousness, he pleaded with his attackers to let him go, but they refused. Instead, he was forced to drink beer containing crushed pills and hydrochloric acid. His ATM card was then taken from him by Page. The perpetrators then discussed their plan to murder Poage while they stood in front of him.

Poage was forced into his own vehicle and was driven approximately seven miles to Higgins Gulch, a remote wooded area in the Black Hills. He was ordered out of the vehicle and pushed into thick snow. He was stripped naked, apart from his undershirt, shoes, and socks. Poage was then escorted downhill toward a small icy creek. During the walk, he was beaten repeatedly until he was forced to lie down in the creek, where he was attacked again.

As Poage lay in the creek, he was stabbed in the neck by Page with a knife. The three men then decided it was time to kill him. Poage requested to be let into his vehicle so he could warm himself up. He said he preferred to bleed to death in the warmth, rather than freezing to death in the cold. Piper agreed to the request if he washed blood off his body first. As Poage washed himself, Piper changed his mind, and Poage was violently dragged back into the creek by the three men as they attempted to drown him.

Poage was then finally killed by having rocks thrown at his head.

Murder of Chester Poage - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Darrell Hoadley will never be released but he should have been given the death penalty as well.

Before he was executed, Page did not offer any final words or apologies to the family of Chester Pogue.