FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   Tuesday, November 22, 2016
CONTACT:  Sara Rabern (605) 773-3215   

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley and Gregory County States Attorney Amy Bartling announced today that Russell Ray Bertram, 63, Sioux Falls, was sentenced to life with no opportunity for parole. On September 29, 2016, a Gregory County jury found Bertram guilty of murder which carries a mandatory life sentence. 

In October 2009, Russell Bertram fired his shotgun fatally killing his fiance, Leonila Stickney, then age 26. 

The case was investigated by the Division of Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by the Gregory County States Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office

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