Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of sexual assault.
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According to the Associated Press, the sentencing occurred just months after jurors found the actor guilty of 13 of the 21 charges. Most of the charges involved a victim who was 14 years old at the time of the assault.
During the sentencing, Chasing Horse stared on as his alleged victims and their families opened up about the trauma they endured.
“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her, explained. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”
“Even to this day, I struggle to regain my faith and spirituality,” Lynnette Adams, the mother of Siera Begaye, one of the other victims, also shared.
Begaye then stated, “I am choosing to see this moment as a fresh start. I will rebuild my life, reclaim my voice, and continue fighting for the future I deserve.”
Before the judge announced the sentencing, she told Chasing Horse, “You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification.
As he was being sentenced, the actor told the judge, “This is a miscarriage of justice.”
More than a dozen people in the courtroom clapped upon hearing the sentencing.
He will be eligible for parole after serving for 37 years.
The Actor Was Arrested in 2023
Chasing Horse was first arrested and indicted in February 2023. He was charged with sexual assault, with the date of the alleged offense occurring in September 2018 near Keremeos, a village in British Columbia.
However, the case was paused in November 2023, due to the actor having charges in the US. It continued the following year.
Prosecutors claimed Chasing Horse used his reputation as a Lakota medicine man to prey on both Indigenous women and girls.
Leone-LaCroix alleged that Chasing Horse assaulted her by stating it would save her mother, who was battling cancer. However, he said, if she told anyone, her mother would die. The assault continued for years.
While Chasing Horse denied all allegations, the actor’s legal team questioned the credibility of his main accuser. They referred to her as a “scorned woman.”
His legal team eventually filed a motion for a new trial. They stated that a witness was not qualified to discuss grooming because the statute of limitations had already expired. However, the motion was denied.