Blind Man Admits Role In Torture, Murder Hot Poker Used In Killing Of Omak Man, 65; Tribal Police Found Remains In June

Marvin L. Shepard, legally blind from a gunshot wound, walked to the front of a federal courtroom on the arm of his public defender Friday and admitted helping torture a man to death with a hot poker.

Shepard, 33, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting aggravated assault and being an accessory to first-degree murder. U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen ordered a presentence report before he decides whether to accept a plea bargain calling for a nine-year prison sentence.

The crime occurred April 15 at the Keller, Wash., home of Shepard’s uncle, Oliver “O.J.” Riehart, on the Colville Indian Reservation. Shepard also is from Keller.

Shepard said he and Riehart, 37, were drinking and socializing with Pete Swimptkin, 65, of Omak, Wash., when Riehart accused Swimptkin of molesting his niece. Tribal police have said there is no indication anyone molested the girl, who died in a car crash about five years ago when she was 12.

Shepard said he escorted Swimptkin to a bedroom where Riehart intended to beat a confession out of him, then returned to the living room and continued drinking and watching television.

He said he heard Swimptkin moan during the assault. Shepard said he asked what was going on when Riehart kept returning to the living room stove and Riehart said, “The SOB, this that and the other, isn’t talking and I’m going to make him talk, so I’m burning him with that poker.”

Later, Shepard said without emotion, Riehart called him to the bedroom to determine whether Swimptkin was dead.

Shepard said it was hard to tell because Swimptkin’s hands and feet were tied and there was rope and wire around his neck. Riehart was sitting on Swimptkin’s back and pulling on the rope around his neck, Shepard said.

He said he asked Riehart what color Swimptkin’s ears were and Riehart said black.

“I said they only need to turn blue,” Shepard told the judge. “I’ve seen a dead person before and the ears were blue, light blue.”

Shepard said Riehart’s wife, Dorothy, 41, joined them in dumping Swimptkin’s body down a road embankment about six miles away. She offered suggestions about the best place to put the body, Shepard said.

Tribal police found Swimptkin’s skeletal remains in June after getting a tip that Shepard and Oliver Riehart had bragged about the murder. Jacki Flynn, an intern in the U.S. Attorney’s office, told Nielsen a poker and blood-stained clothing were found in a firepit at the Riehart home.

Dorothy Riehart is to be tried Nov. 4 on a charge of failing to report the crime. She and Shepard were charged in federal court because they are Indians.

Oliver Riehart, a non-Indian, is to be tried Nov. 12 in Ferry County Superior Court on a charge of first-degree murder.

, DataTimes