A Sioux Falls man has pleaded guilty in the death of his wife nearly a year after he was first arrested for the crime.

Jimmie David Ledbetter Jr. was arrested in late 2024, after his wife Angela Ledbetter was found strangled to death in her home, less than a week after court documents showed she had filed for divorce from her husband.

The victim's mother told police that she had been frightened by her husband's behavior in recent days, and that she was planning to change the locks on her home. She had also called her mother on the day of her death and said that Jimmie Ledbetter Jr. was there.

On Oct. 15, shortly before a jury trial was set to begin in the case, documents say Ledbetter Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter, with a number of other murder and assaul

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