South Dakota driver sentenced for crash that killed Warman man

A 28-year-old South Dakota man is going to prison for negligent homicide in connection with a motorcycle crash that claimed the life of a Warman man in September of 2019.

Randy Moore, 55, was travelling from Regina to Sturgis, S.D., on US Highway 85 when a truck came into his lane south of Grassy Butte, N.D. Moore died after he tried to avoid the collision and fell from his motorcycle.

A camera mounted on Moore’s helmet took a picture of the truck just before he crashed. A dash camera in a state trooper’s vehicle also captured an image of the truck leaving the scene as the officer responded to the call.

On Friday in Watford City, N.D., Duke Knoll of Platte, S.D., entered an Alford plea to one count of negligent homicide.

According to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute, an Alford plea “registers a formal claim neither of guilt nor innocence toward charges brought against a defendant in criminal court …

“An Alford plea arrests the full process of criminal trial because the defendant — typically, only with the court’s permission — accepts all the ramifications of a guilty verdict (i.e. punishment) without first attesting to having committed the crime.”

Court officials in Watford City said Knoll was sentenced to five years in a state prison, with one year suspended and 204 days credit for time served. He’ll be on three years probation after his release.

He also was ordered not to have contact with Moore’s family.

Knoll pleaded guilty to an additional charge of driving under suspension.