A 25-year-old Riverton man accused of shooting his girlfriend in the face and leaving her dead with their young daughter in a hotel room has been bound over to Fremont County District Court to face a second-degree murder charge.
During an interview with a Riverton Police Department victim witness coordinator later that day on March 7, the young girl stated at various times that, “Mommy’s dead,” “Mommy has blood on her” and “Daddy was mad at Mommy,” according to an affidavit of probable cause by Detective Peter McCall.
Sterling Louis Black Jr. was arrested the afternoon of March 7 when he turned himself in to law enforcement about nine hours after his girlfriend was found dead in a room at the Ol’ Wyoming Motel on Federal Boulevard.
At Black’s preliminary hearing last week, a Fremont County Circuit Court judge determined there’s enough evidence for him to face a second-degree murder charge, which could get him 20 years to life in prison if convicted.
‘Momma’s In My Bathroom’
The body of 24-year-old Angelina Rose Bell was discovered with blood pooling under her head lying on the bathroom floor of the motel room she was sharing with Black and their young daughter, McCall wrote in his affidavit.
Police responded to the motel at about 7 a.m. after someone called police to report “a little girl found her mother, and she was not sure if she was conscious, but could see lots of blood,” the affidavit says.
When officers found Bell in the bathroom, she showed no signs of life and a casing from a 9 mm handgun was later found in the toilet bowl, according to the affidavit.
They were directed to the gruesome scene by the little girl.
“Momma’s in my bathroom,” she told an officer, the affidavit says. She appeared to “only be able to tell Officer (Scott) Christoffersen that her mother was in the bathroom.”
When he arrived at the motel, McCall wrote that he observed a plastic firearm case indicating it had held a SAR 9 mm semiautomatic handgun with two empty ammunition magazines but no gun.
Single Gunshot
Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie also was called to the scene, and noted what appeared to be a bullet entry wound near the bridge of Bell’s nose next to her right eye, the affidavit says.
The wound was consistent with being shot with a 9 mm bullet, along with stippling around a “large area” of the wound, McCall wrote.
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.
In An Abandoned Trailer
At some point during the investigation at the motel, Black’s father arrived at the scene expressing concern for his son, according to the affidavit.
He told police that his son, Bell and their daughter lived out of the motel room, the affidavit says, adding that the father “did not specify how he became aware of this incident.”
Black turned himself in at the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office a little after 4 p.m. that day, McCall wrote, and he was transported to the RPD.
Black’s father went to the police department with officers and explained that he found his son in an abandoned trailer on his property, and urged him to “do what is right,” the affidavit says.
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 also told law enforcement they could search that area.
The gun Black’s father turned in to law enforcement was a black SAR 9mm semiautomatic handgun with an empty magazine, the serial number of which number matched the one on the case law enforcement found in the motel room, the affidavit alleges.
History Of Abuse
Black, Bell and their daughter had been living at the motel since Feb. 12, motel staff told police, the affidavit says. None of the people staying in surrounding rooms reported hearing a gunshot or arguing from their room.
The couple had been observed by motel staff consuming alcohol during their stay, McCall noted in his affidavit.
“Also located in the bathroom were signs of drug and alcohol use,” he added.
Video from the motel showed Black, Bell and the child arriving at the room at around 11 p.m. the night before. It then showed Black leaving 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.
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.
Black remains at the Fremont County Detention Center on a $750,000 cash-only bond. A date and time for his arraignment in Fremont County District Court have not been set, according to court records.
