Family of murdered Oglala Lakota woman host memorial to honor memory

LAS VEGAS—On Sunday, March 10, a dozen people gathered at Floyd Lamb Park to pay respects to the memory of Debra Black Crow. Black Crow was enrolled citizen of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe, and she was brutally murdered by her-then husband while 7 months pregnant in San Bernardino, California on March 10, 1997. She left behind four children from a previous marriage, and they planted a rosebush in her memory on the anniversary of her death a year ago on March 10, 2023.

Black Crow’s official cause of death was strangulation, but she was also discovered with 13 stab wounds in a bathtub inside the home she shared with her ex-husband and then doused with cleaning agents. Her ex-husband, Rodney “Patrick” McNeal, would become a suspect less than two years after meeting Debra for the first time and would eventually be charged, convicted and sentenced to prison for the murder of his ex-wife.

McNeal would gain support a few years after he was sentenced by the California Innocent Project in 2004, where they successfully campaigned Governor Gavin Newsom to commute his sentence saying he was a victim of the criminal justice system. The California Innocence Project has three missions: free the wrongfully-convicted from prison, work to reform the criminal justice system, and train law students to become zealous advocates. They have freed 34 people since 1999.

Within days of Black Crow’s murder, McNeal filed a life insurance claim, valued at $100,000, and claimed he was the sole beneficiary even though she had four children. However, because timing of filing the claim was so soon after her death, it alerted law enforcement and they then considered him a suspect.

At the time of Black Crow’s death, her ex-husband was a probation officer for the state of California and also had a bachelor’s degree in criminal law. During his trial, his legal defense argued timing, or there wasn’t enough time for McNeal to commit the crime considering when he was last seen at his workplace in downtown San Bernardino to the time of the phone call. According to court documents, it takes approximately 8 minutes to drive from his workplace to the home he shared with Black Crow in Highland, California. He was last documented at his office at 12:15 p.m. and he called the police to report that he found his wife murdered in their home at 12:29 p.m.—leaving only 5 minutes unaccounted for.

McNeal convinced the California Innocence Project that he was a victim of the racist criminal justice system because he was a black man and his ex-wife was a white woman. The organization hired a media production company to produce four videos to help him get out of prison.

Then, on March 27, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted the sentence of Rodney Patrick McNeil from 30-years-to-life to 22-years-to-life, which meant he was now eligible for parole. Her family found out about the commutation on television, later that day. The family wasn’t contacted and Debra’s daughter Shantell Haynes contacted South Dakota’s Tribal Relations Committee. Representatives Tamara St. John and Peri Pourier organized Oglala Sioux Tribal President Julian Bear Runner and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier in August 2020 to write a letter to Gov. Newsom asking him to deny McNeal’s parole.

Gov. Newsom later reversed parole for Rodney Patrick McNeil on January 29, 2021, distinguishing that the crime he was convicted for occurred in the context of a national epidemic. “Mr. McNeal’s violent conduct toward Ms. Black Crow McNeal not only ended her life, but also had a devastating impact on her family, community, and Tribal Nation,” said Gov. Newsom in his reversal decision on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. “I have considered the evidence in the record that is relevant to whether Mr. McNeal is currently dangerous. When considered as a whole, I find the evidence shows that he currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time. Therefore, I reverse the decision to parole Mr. McNeal.”

McNeal has since been released from prison and lives in the Las Vegas area, where Debra’s children also live. In the last few years, Shantell has had to advocate for criminal justice reform including creating what she calls a “murder registry”. Similar to a sex offender registry, she feels the public should also have awareness of who has been convicted and released from custody for murder.

Debra’s children said they’ll continue to honor her mother for years to come, and invite community members to the space every March 10—her anniversary—to visit with one another and build community. Near her rosebush reads Debra’s information; “In Memory Of Debra Marie BlackCrow Sunrise September 11, 1958 Sunset March 10, 1997.”

“She was a young woman who was just trying to be the best mother, sister, and contributing member to society she could be,” said Debra’s daughter Shantell Haynes of her mother to Native Sun News Today. “She loved her kids, she loved all kids, she loved her community, she loved life.”

“Its just tragic that the system reduced her to a statistic for political gains,” she said. 

 

Previous reporting on Debra Black Crow was done via Unicorn Riot and Native News Online. This reporting was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T).

The post Family of murdered Oglala Lakota woman host memorial to honor memory first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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