Alison J. Ramsdell U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota
United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell has announced the sentencing of Malania Rose Fast Horse, a 25-year-old woman from Wakpala, South Dakota. U.S. District Judge Charles B. Kornmann sentenced Fast Horse to 13 years in federal prison for voluntary manslaughter on June 23, 2025.
The sentence includes three years of supervised release following her prison term and a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Fast Horse was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2025 and pleaded guilty on March 6, 2025.
The incident occurred on Christmas Eve 2024 when Fast Horse argued with her mother at their home within the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in Wakpala, South Dakota. During the altercation, Fast Horse stabbed her mother multiple times in the chest, arm, and hand. Afterward, she went to her grandmother's house nearby and informed her grandmother and brother about the stabbing before leaving with some cigarettes.
Fast Horse’s brother found their mother alive but incoherent in a pool of blood. Emergency medical services were dispatched quickly; however, their mother later died from her injuries.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case under the Major Crimes Act, which requires certain violent crimes occurring in Indian country to be handled in federal court rather than state court.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs – Office of Justice Services. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Thunem led the prosecution. Following sentencing, Fast Horse was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.
