A Crow Agency man admitted Wednesday to obstructing an already fraught homicide investigation on the Crow Reservation.

William Robert Jay Howe Jr. pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to accessory after the fact. Howe was one of two men charged in the fallout of the death of Victor Buell Three Irons, who was fatally shot in January 2023. Federal agents investigating the homicide contended with conflicting stories, omitted information and outright lies from suspects and witnesses.

“There is no doubt that everybody lied about what happened on Jan. 18, 2023,” U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters said at the sentencing for one of the suspects.

On that same day, Three Irons was dropped off at the Indian Health Service hospital in Crow Agency. He had multiple gunshot wounds, and hospital sta

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