Boice found guilty of second-degree murder

Resendiz was beaten to death in the Roundhouse Inn Motel in Carson City in August 1998. Boice will be sentenced on Nov. 4. The Nevada Appeal, Carson City’s daily newspaper, reported that District Attorney Noel Waters told the court he would ask for the minimum sentence of 20 years.

Another batch of defendants—Jessica Evans, Fred Fred and Jaron Malone—will be tried for first-degree murder and other charges related to the death. Their trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 2. There are five more defendants—Lew Dutchy, Sylvia Fred, Elvin Fred Mike Kizer and Clint Malone—who will be tried at a later date. Eleven of the original 12 charged in the crime are Native Americans.

The trials turned the eyes of Native American activists toward Carson City. Boice supporter and American Indian Movement of Northern California founder Russell Redner stated that Boice’s trial is just another beginning in Native Americans’ fight against racial injustice.

“We are putting together a renewed approach for Rocky on a political prisoner campaign and gearing up for the next trials,” Redner told the RN&R. “We want Nevada to become the frontlines; included in this is the Western Shoshone Nations and Dann sisters’ case.”

Mary and Carrie Dann are the members of the Western Shoshone Nation who have had well-publicized battles against the Bureau of Land Management about where they graze their cattle. They claim the land, 60 miles southwest of Elko, is ancestral land under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. The federal government claims otherwise and confiscated 227 head of cattle on Sept. 22.