PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A New York City man believed to have been trafficking fentanyl-laced heroin in South Dakota and who was convicted for the murders of three people in Rapid City four years ago won’t get a new trial in their deaths, the South Dakota Supreme Court has decided.
In a unanimous opinion publicly released on Thursday, the state’s high court rejected the argument that the 2023 trial of Arnson Absolu was so flawed that a second one was necessary.
His lawyer, Timothy Rensch of Rapid City, claimed that prosecutors should have revealed that Shamar Bennett, one of the witnesses who testified against Absolu, was a suspect in a separate child-abuse investigation.
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Bennett admitted that he had helped Absolu dispose of the body of Dakota Zaiser, one of the victims. He later took law enforcement officers to the burial spot. In return for the testimony, prosecutors gave Bennett immunity.
Based on surveillance footage and other information, law enforcement officers said they had reason to believe that Zaiser had been with Absolu when Red Willow and Nagy were shot.