BILLINGS - A 20-year-old woman has been charged with deliberate homicide for the stabbing death of a man found inside his Billings apartment last December.
Elicia Railah Bearcomesout pleaded not guilty to the charge in Yellowstone County District Court on July 5. She remains in custody at the Yellowstone County jail on $300,000 bond.
Bearcomesout is accused of stabbing Joseph Little Sr., 39, to death inside his apartment at 1141 28th Street West. Police found Little's body in a chair in the living room of the apartment on Dec. 5 after a neighbor said she hadn't seen him for several days and called 911 after finding him dead.
According to charging documents, Bearcomesout surfaced as a suspect in the killing after a man called police to report that his girlfriend told him that she and her sister, Beacomeout, had done "something" bad. During an interview with a detective, the man reportedly said that his girlfriend called him on Dec. 3 crying and said "he touched me" and to come get her at the Briar Patch Apartments, #7. The man said he arrived and met his girlfriend and Bearcomesout outside and then the two led him to the apartment.
The man said the apartment door was open and he saw a man with a wound to his neck and covered in blood slumped over in a chair, court documents state. The three left and the man told the detective that Bearcomesout, who had been dating Little and staying at his apartment, admitted to him that she "did it," and didn't want Little to breathe anymore so she cut his neck. The man reported Bearcomesout said she threw the knife she used into an irrigation canal.
Bearcomesout's sister told police she was picked up by Little and her sister and they went to his apartment and drank alcohol. She said she went to sleep on a couch and woke up to Little and her sister arguing. The woman said she saw her sister go to the kitchen and retrieve a knife and stab Little. That's when she called her boyfriend to come get them at the apartment, the woman said, according to court records.
During the investigation, officers retrieved messages from Bearcomesout's phone, including statements that she would be "going away for a long time" if caught and "I felt nothing when I did it," court records state.
Little's family has become active in Montana's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement in the wake of his death.
“He would help out whenever he could, so I’m just helping because he always did," Joey Little's brother, Maurice Little, told MTN on May 5.
Following Bearcomesout's arrest, Maurice Little said his family feels some relief, but also anger and frustration.
“It brought back a lot of emotions for me, because I had to deal with this all over again," Maurice Little said.
Charlene Sleeper, a MMIP prevention advocate and organizer, has been helping Little's family with the case.
“The initial trauma that anybody experiences, regardless of their cultural background, is extremely heartbreaking," Sleeper said.
Sleeper says getting charges pressed in MMIP cases is rare, but shows law enforcement and the criminal justice system are making progress handling these cases.
“I just broke down in tears," Sleeper said. "I think that's because we hope and we pray and we work towards an apprehension in a case when it happens, which is rare, it is a very emotional moment."
