May 16, 2020

Pine Ridge man pleads guilty to fatally bludgeoning brother

Posted May 16, 2020 1:00 PM

RAPID CITY, S. D. (KOTA-TV) — A Pine Ridge man has pleaded guilty in federal court to killing his brother.

Fifty-two-year-old Lawrence Pourier entered the plea Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Pourier had been charged with second-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of his brother, Eric Pourier.

KOTA-TV says Pourier admits getting in a fight with his brother at a home near Porcupine on the Pine Ridge Reservation last January.

A statement signed by the defendant says he hit his brother on the back and head with a pipe at least 20 times.

The cause of his brother’s death was blood loss due to blunt force trauma.