PIERRE S.D. (KELO)– South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced a Wagner man has pleaded guilty but mentally ill and has been sentenced for threatening two public officials, according to a news release.
Jason Shields, 40, entered guilty pleas Friday in Charles Mix County Circuit Court to one count of Threatening the Governor and one count of Threatening a Judge. The charges occurred in October 2022.
Court documents say Shields made the threat about Gov. Kristi Noem on or about Oct. 23, 2022. A Division of Criminal Investigation found Shields sent a fax document to a Sioux Falls TV station with the title “Kristen noem.”
Prosecutors in the Attorney General’s office requested that Shields be sentenced to the maximum of 10 years in prison. Shields was sentenced to five years in prison on each count and credit for 614 days already served. All jail time was suspended, and he was placed on probation for four years.
According to Jackley, the court based its decision on Senate Bill 70, which was approved by the 2013 South Dakota Legislature, which determined that a probationary sentence should be presumed for non-violent offenders. Prosecutors argued that Shields was a danger to the community and not entitled to presumptive probation.
“Threatening the Governor and a Judge are serious offenses, and ones that will be prosecuted,” Jackley said in a news release. “The use of Senate Bill 70 in this manner speaks to the need for the upcoming Legislature to consider changes to the presumptive probation statute.”
On social media, Republican Rep. Tony Venhuizen said “presumptive probation does NOT prevent a judge from imposing prison time, and it does NOT prohibit a prosecutor from asking for prison time, as apparently happened in this case.”
