Sutherland charged in July 7 murder at Rocky Boy

Rocky Boy resident Gavin Tyrone Sutherland is set to be arraigned this afternoon in Great Falls on a charge of second degree murder stemming from a death on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in July.

FBI spokesman Douglas Davis said Sutherland was charged Wednesday in the murder of Shannon Dora Cole Licht, who was found dead in her residence the morning of July 7.

A charging document said that when Sutherland was interviewed Oct. 3, he waived his Miranda rights and told the investigator, “I killed my sister … I choked her” after being told to do so by voices he heard.

Two witnesses told the investigator they and others, including Sutherland, had been drinking in Licht’s home with her that night, the document said. The document refers to Licht as “Jane Doe.”

The witnesses said that shortly after midnight, they, Sutherland and Licht were the only people in the house and Licht became upset over some money she thought had been stolen.

She called Sutherland into her bedroom, the witnesses said, and a few minutes later they heard a thumping sound on the wall and Licht scream, “the sound a woman makes when she gets hit … or when she’s scaredm” the document said.

They heard Licht tell Sutherland to leave, and they left the house, afraid he would come out and want to fight one of the witnesses, they said. They went to a neighboring house and thought Sutherland was following them, locked the door and heard someone trying to get inside.

The document said Licht’s body was found when her juvenile son, who had been staying with family in North Dakota, traveled back to Rocky Boy, excited to see his mother after being away for months.

He arrived at about 1 a.m. to find his mother dead on the floor in her bedroom, the document said.

In September, Sutherland was arrested on unrelated charges and extradited from the state of Washington to Great Falls, the document said.

When the investigating officer interviewed Sutherland Oct. 3, he said he was talking to Licht in her bedroom when he began to hear voices and see a dark shadow, which he called “shadow man,” the document said.

He told the investigator the voices told him to kill Licht, and if he did, they would stop haunting him.

At that point he killed Licht, choking her, Sutherland told the investigator.

He told the investigator that he has not heard the voices or seen shadows since Licht’s death and that he feels great remorse, the document said.

The preliminary report from the autopsy on Licht determined the cause of death was strangulation and the manner of death homicide, the document said.

DNA evidence excluded as suspects the two witnesses who said they left after they heard Licht scream but included Sutherland and another person who had been at Licht’s homes as possible suspects, the document said.