The young daughter of a 24-year-old woman found dead with an apparent facial gunshot wound Saturday in a Riverton motel room told authorities, “Daddy was mad at Mommy,” and “Mommy’s dead,” court documents say.
Sterling Louis Black Jr., 25, turned himself in to police Saturday afternoon, and now faces one count of second-degree murder, says an affidavit and charging information filed Monday in Riverton Circuit Court.
Second-degree murder is punishable by between 20 years and life in prison.
Riverton Police Department officers Brandon Brookover and Scott Christoffersen responded at about 7 a.m. Saturday to the Ol’ Wyoming Motel on Federal Boulevard in Riverton, according to the affidavit, and a public statement RPD released over the weekend.
The agency’s dispatcher had received a call from someone saying, “a little girl found her mother and was not sure if she was conscious but could see lots of blood,” says the affidavit, compiled from the notes of RPD Detective Peter McCall.
Entering the motel room, Brookover found a woman, 24-year-old Angelina Rose Bell, lying on her right side on the bathroom floor, with blood pooling under her head, the document says.
Brookover saw no signs of life.
He found a spent bullet casing in the toilet bowl that was later found to be a 9mm casing, the document says.
Motel staff told him “Sterling Black” had left the motel at about 5:15 a.m. Saturday, says the affidavit, which later describes motel staff showing investigators video to confirm that statement.
Christoffersen, who was also on scene, spoke with a little girl.
“Momma’s in my bathroom,” the girl told Christoffersen, reportedly. The girl appeared to “only be able to tell Officer Christoffersen that her mother was in the bathroom,” says the document.
Authorities took the girl to the police department, where tribal Department of Family Services personnel also met her. She was later sent home with family.
But first, the affidavit says, the little girl reportedly told a victim witness coordinator things like: “Daddy went for a walk,” and “Mommy has blood on her,” and Daddy was mad at Mommy, and, “Mommy’s dead.”
Meanwhile In The Room
McCall arrived at the motel room.
He saw a plastic firearm case indicating it had contained a SAR 9mm semiautomatic handgun. It contained two empty firearm magazines but no gun, McCall noted.
The detective documented the scene with photographs and scans. He noted the spent casing in the toilet, says the affidavit.
Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie arrived on scene.
Investigators rolled Bell onto her back, and McCall noted what looked like a bullet entry wound near the bridge of Bell’s nose next to her right eye, consistent with a 9mm bullet, the document says.
McCall noted stippling in a “large area” around the wound.
Stippling is a pattern of tiny, red-brown abrasions on the skin from unburned or partially burned gunpowder particles hitting the skin. The pattern marked Bell’s nose, left and right eye, forehead and right cheek, McCall wrote.
Her face didn’t show any obvious gas burns or searing from excessive gas pressures, the detective added.
The size of the stippling coupled with that lack of burns indicated the gun was anywhere from “several” inches to 2 feet from Bell’s face when fired, McCall wrote.
Self-inflicted gunshot wounds, conversely, are “contact” shots by which the gasses tear wounds in the skin as they escape from a gun in contact with the body, McCall added.
Bell lacked those tearing wounds, though her wound showed some star-shaped pattern, says the document.
McCall wrote that he found one fired bullet on the bathroom floor in front of the vanity, which investigators believe to have caused the injury.
There was no exit wound, he added.
“Also located in the bathroom were signs of drug and alcohol use,” the detective noted.
A black 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander registered to Black was parked outside the room, but investigators didn’t find keys to it inside the room.
Black’s father arrived on scene and voiced concern for his son, wrote McCall.
The father said Black, Bell and their child lived at the motel room. The father “did not specify how he became aware of this incident,” the detective observed.
Investigators reportedly obtained a search warrant for the room and documented the handgun case, reviewed security video from the motel camera, and confirmed that Black was recorded leaving the room.
The video showed Black leaving the room in a black hooded shirt, grey sweatpants and black slide-style sandals, McCall wrote.
Video showed Black, Bell and the child arriving at the room Friday night at around 11 p.m. It showed Black left the room at around 2:41 a.m., McCall related from the video.
Black returned “at an unknown time” and left the room again at around 5:21 a.m, the detective added.
Motel staff told investigators Black was the registered tenant of the room and had been renting it since Feb. 12.
None of the neighbors reported hearing a gunshot or arguing coming from Black’s room, noted McCall.
McCall called multiple of Bell’s family members, and “all” provided consistent statements about abuse “between” the two starting in late December or early January, says the document.
Bell told family members on multiple occasions that Black had hit her, and several family members knew Black had a gun, McCall related from those interviews.
Sheriff’s Office
At about 4:08 p.m. Saturday, someone at the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office called the Riverton Police Department to let officers know that Black was turning himself in to law enforcement, the affidavit says.
Brookover and Christoffersen traveled to the sheriff’s office and took Black into custody on a warrant, then brought him to the police station for booking, reportedly.
The document says Black’s father gave officers the gun.
According to McCall’s account, Black’s father found the son in an abandoned trailer on his property and urged him to “do what is right.”
The father told his son to put the gun in a plastic bag so he, the father, would not have to touch it, the document adds.
The father told law enforcement they could search that area.
McCall photographed Black during the man’s booking, and noted Black was wearing a tan-colored shirt, grey sweatpants, and black slide sandals, the document says.
Black’s body showed no injuries, except a small cut to his left thumb, wrote McCall.
Black provided a breath alcohol sample which — roughly 12 hours after the alleged crime — bore a .06% breath-alcohol reading.
The gun Black’s father turned in to law enforcement was a black SAR 9mm semiautomatic handgun with an empty magazine, whose serial number matched the one on the case law enforcement found in the motel room, the affidavit alleges.
In The Trailer
Brookover and Christoffersen went to the father’s property and searched the area. They didn’t find the black hoodie pictured on motel security video. They didn’t find car keys. And they didn’t find any ammunition, McCall wrote.
Black’s case is ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
