United States v. Looking Cloud

Darlene Nichols testified that Leonard Peltier, an AIM activist who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in the Pine Ridge Shootout^[13] (officially designated RESMURS by the FBI),^[14] told her and Aquash that he killed two FBI agents during a June 1975 shootout at a Pine Ridge ranch. According to Ecoffey's testimony, "He said the (expletive) was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway."^[15] According to Nichols-Ecoffey, she, along with Leonard Peltier, her sisters Bernie Nichols-Lafferty^[16] and Barbara Robideau,^[17] then-husband Dennis Banks^[18] and others were riding in a recreational vehicle lent to the American Indian Movement by the Hollywood actor Marlon Brando when Peltier recounted this event.^[19] Nichols also testified to how she had heard Peltier say he thought Aquash was a snitch.^[20]

During the trial, Nichols testified as to several incidents of violence involving the American Indian Movement. Three of these incidents, The Custer Courthouse Riot Incident which involved several hundred people, the seventy-one day occupation of Wounded Knee, and a shoot-out near her home which killed two FBI agents.^[21] Nichols also discussed suspicions nearly twenty members of the American Indian Movement had of Aquash being an informant, or were at least acquainted with the rumor.^[21] Nichols also testified that several members, one of whom had already threatened Aquash's life because he suspected she was an informant, took Aquash away for weeks to "watch her," explaining that she was constantly under the surveillance of the American Indian Movement, was not allowed to go anywhere alone, and was not permitted to go home despite her requests to do so.^[21] Mathalene White Bear, another former member of the American Indian Movement who provided shelter to Aquash in 1975, testified that Aquash believed her life was in danger as early as September of that year.^[22] Darlene Nichols testified that Leonard Crow Dog and Leonard Peltier thought Aquash was an informant, and that Nichols, her daughter, and Dennis Banks, heard Peltier say he thought Aquash was an informant.^[21]

For his involvement in the murder of Aquash, Looking Cloud confessed that he drove Aquash from Denver to Rapid City and then to the location where Aquash was murdered; however, he alleged that he knew nothing of the plan to execute Aquash, and that it was AIM member John Graham, alias John Boy Patton,^[23] who shot Aquash.^[24]

Richard Two Elk would later provide testimony in the federal trial involving the murder of Aquash. Two Elk provided testimony which indicated that Arlo Looking Cloud contacted him around the autumn of 1994, asking for advice on how to respond to authorities who were investigating Aquash's murder, and Two Elk stated that Looking Cloud admitted to being involved in the case.^[25] Two Elk stated that he believed his adopted brother was involved in the murder of Aquash and that over the years, Looking Cloud was only "acting on orders."^[26]

In February 2004, after a federal jury (consisting of 7 women and 5 men) deliberated for seven hours, they convicted Arlo Looking Cloud in the 1975 execution-style slaying of Aquash.^[27][28]

Appeal

In 2005, Looking Cloud appealed the verdict to the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeal was struck down and his mandatory life prison term life-sentence was upheld and affirmed.^[21]

Plea deal

In August 2011, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol signed an order which reduced Looking Cloud's original life-sentence term to 20 years in exchange for previous testimony given to state prosecutors during December 2010 against co-conspirator John Graham.^[29][30] Looking Cloud's testimony provided further insight into the murder of Aquash, with Looking Cloud alleging that he stood nearby while Graham shot Aquash.^[30][31] Looking Cloud was assigned BOP# 07609-073 and released from FTC Oklahoma City on November 10, 2020.