A South Dakota couple accused of shooting at and bear-spraying a woman who traipsed through their campsite in the Bridger Teton National Forest are set to dodge felony convictions next month by pleading guilty to lesser charges.
Shannon Dewitt and Ben Dewitt were originally charged in June in Teton County with aggravated assault, which is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Ben Dewitt also faced one count of false imprisonment, which is punishable by up to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines.
But on Nov. 26, both cases went back down to the misdemeanor-level Jackson Circuit Court. Shannon’s case has been reduced to one count of reckless endangering, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. And Ben’s case has been reduced to one count of reckless endangering, while the second count of false imprisonment remains.
They’re scheduled to change their pleas to some variation of guilty or no contest on Jan. 14.
Lost Hat
The evidentiary affidavit in this case says the alleged victim, a 43-year-old Colorado woman, was searching for her lost hat in the Dewitts’ campsite on June 24. The woman and her family had been horseback riding that day, and the woman’s hat blew off.
She drove her vehicle with her two children in the back seat while her husband walked alongside on foot, the document says.
When the woman walked through the Dewitts’ campsite, the couple’s remote camera alerted them to an intruder.
With Shannon in the back seat, Ben Dewitt drove his 2019 Ford F-350 up to the Colorado woman’s Audi. Court documents say he parked in front of her, blocking her on the two-track road, then hopped out of his truck and walked toward her exhibiting a “menacing” attitude.
When she tried driving away, Ben Dewitt unholstered his handgun and fired two rounds into the ground; then Shannon blasted the alleged victim with bear spray through the Audi’s open window, the document says.
Park rangers and other law enforcement later responding to the scene found the Colorado woman washing bear spray from her face, says the affidavit.
Hush
In September, Ben Dewitt’s attorneys Katherine Mannen and Claire Fuller argued that statements Ben Dewitt gave on scene to Teton County Sheriff’s Cpl. Erik Elizondo should not be made available as trial evidence.
Ben was handcuffed on scene and placed in the back of a patrol vehicle. For the second of two interviews on scene, Ben’s handcuffs were removed, but he remained in the patrol vehicle and hadn’t been told his Miranda rights, the attorneys’ filing says.
Ben Dewitt’s counsel argued that he could have reasonably felt confined, so his partial confession was coercive and not voluntary, since he hadn’t been Mirandized.
The prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Damon DeBernardi, countered, saying Elizondo only kept Dewitt in the patrol vehicle at that point because of the heat outside, and the interview was casual and kindly.
It is unclear how, or whether the judge ruled on this motion: an order had not appeared in the public-facing file as of Tuesday.
The Dewitts also had waged an argument earlier in the case that they were defending their temporary home: their campsite. The judge didn't dismiss the case based on that argument; the prosecutor had noted that neither of them were at the campsite when the intruder was in it, but that they chased her down later.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
