SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Sentencing for the six Mitchell Legion baseball players charged with accessory to a felony is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. MT Thursday, September 12 at the Pennington County Courthouse.
KELOLAND’s Tyler Louder will be in the courtroom for continued coverage of the sentencing.
In August 2023, the Pennington County State’s Attorney filed charges against six players: Hudson Michael Haley, Landon William Waddell, Peyton Douglas Mandel, Lincoln Charles Bates, Carter Ryan Miller and Karter Marcus Sibson. The players were originally charged with rape.
In June 2024, Bates was the first to accept a plea deal, followed by Miller and Mandel a week later. The final three players, Haley, Waddell and Sibson, also pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to a felony on Monday. In exchange for their pleas, rape charges were dropped for all six former players.
The players were members of the Mitchell American Legion baseball team when the alleged incident happened during a tournament in Rapid City. The Post 18 Legion team did not have a season this year.
Tim Smith, a media representative and board member for the Mitchell Baseball Association (MBA), told KELOLAND News in July that the organization thought the six players shouldn’t have been charged with rape in the first place.
“We understand the seriousness of the charges but we felt all along that the rape charges were, how should I put it, extreme,” Smith said at the time. “Did the boys do something wrong? Yes. Should they be punished? Yes. Should they have been charged with rape? We felt no in the first place and I think the prosecutor has come to that decision as well and led to the plea agreements that you see now.”
The judge on the case is Presiding Circuit Judge Robert Gusinsky. A gag order was put in place so prosecutors have not been able to speak with the media.
