Former police chief indicted on first-degree murder charge
PIERRE, S.D. -- A grand jury in South Dakota has indicted a 63-year-old man who has served as a police chief on a first-degree murder charge.
Attorney General Marty Jackley's office said Wednesday that if Russell Ray Bertram of Sioux Falls is convicted, he faces the death penalty or a mandatory life sentence.
Authorities say Bertram in 2009 killed Leonila Stickney, who was his 26-year-old fiancee.
At the time, the Gregory County Sheriff's Office said authorities believed Stickney's death was the result of an accidental shooting.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general says the death was forwarded to state investigators as a cold case and the discovery of additional evidence led to Bertram's arrest.
Bertram served as police chief of Harrisburg and as a police officer.