National Roundup

South Dakota
High court upholds sentence in fatal Sioux Falls shooting
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to killing a Sioux Falls teen during an attempted drug robbery in 2017.

Dylan Holler, 20, was sentenced to 80 years in prison with 40 years suspended in February 2019.

Holler argued the sentence was disproportionate to the offense, according to the Argus Leader.

Holler shot and killed 17-year-old Riley Stonehouse at Bakker Parks in Sioux Falls while trying to rob another teen of marijuana.

Holler also said the sentencing judge didn’t properly consider his individual circumstances, including childhood abuse by his father and at a daycare, witnessing his mother’s abuse and his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Chief Justice David Gilbertson wrote that the circuit court )properly and carefully examined the events surrounding the offense, Holler’s character and history, and Holler’s rehabilitation prospects” at the time of sentencing.

Holler has the possibility of parole in about 20 years.

Washington
High court won’t put transgender surgery on hold
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t put an Idaho transgender inmate’s gender confirmation surgery on hold while a lawsuit over the procedure moves forward.

The order on Thursday means Adree Edmo can continue getting pre-surgical treatments and potentially even gender confirmation surgery this year while Idaho officials wait to hear if the high court will consider their appeal.

Edmo has been housed in a men’s prison facility since she first began serving time on a charge of sexually abusing a child younger than 16 in 2012. She’s scheduled for release in July of 2021.

She sued the state three years ago, contending that prison officials’ refusal to provide her with gender confirmation surgery causes her severe distress because she has gender dysphoria. One of her attorneys, Lori Rifkin, has said Edmo experienced such suffering from the lack of treatment that she twice tried to cut off her testicles in her prison cell.

Attorneys for the Idaho Department of Correction and private prison healthcare company Corizon have agreed that Edmo’s condition has caused her distress. But they contend her prison doctors have determined the surgery isn’t medically necessary and would do more harm than good because it could exacerbate her other mental health conditions.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has also said Edmo shouldn’t have access to taxpayer-funded surgical procedures that other Idahoans can’t get covered through their own insurance.

But Edmo’s attorneys say prisons don’t get to pick and choose which people to treat, and they’re required to provide medically necessary care to incarcerated people. They have also contended that the harm done to Edmo by denying the surgery vastly outweighs any harm that providing it would pose to the state or Corizon.

Edmo has so far prevailed at both the federal district and appellate courts.

The state’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to consider the case earlier this month, and the high court hasn’t yet decided if it will do so. The order denying the stay was given by Justice Elena Kagan without explanation, but it noted that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the state’s request.

Mississippi
Court: Convicted ex-prisons leader and wife owe income taxes
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi court has affirmed a ruling that says an imprisoned former corrections commissioner and his wife must pay more than $69,000 in state income taxes.

A Hinds County chancery judge ruled last year that Christoper Epps and his wife, Catherlean, waited too long to challenge the Department of Revenue’s order that they must pay $69,489 in individual income tax for 2007 to 2014. The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed that judge’s ruling, the Clarion Ledger reported.

Epps was head of the state prison system for a dozen years. After resigning on Nov. 5, 2014, he was indicted on charges of accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for contracts and illicit activity with various corrections facilities. He pleaded guilty in 2015 to money laundering and filing a false income tax return.

Epps was sentenced in May 2017 by U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate to almost 20 years in federal prison and fined $100,000 for running one of the largest and longest criminal conspiracies in the state’s history. Catherlean Epps was never implicated in any wrongdoing.

A 49-count federal indictment accused Christopher Epps of taking nearly $1.5 million in bribes and kickbacks to steer more than $800 million worth of state prison contracts.

A Department of Revenue audit determined the couple owed the additional taxes and issued an assessment letter dated Oct. 23, 2017. The couple appealed to a Department of Revenue review board and later to chancery court.

Chancery Judge Tiffany Grove dismissed the appeal last year, agreeing with the Department of Revenue that the couple had missed the deadline by one day to file an appeal in chancery court.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals agreed with Grove’s ruling, saying the couple failed to appeal within the required 60 days.