Final sentence issued in Savanna Greywind’s case

FARGO – Although a jury found him innocent of conspiracy to murder Savanna Greywind, William Hoehn received a sentence of life imprisonment plus one year with the possibility of parole Monday morning.

“The injustice has to some extent been minimized,” Greywind family attorney Gloria Allred said.

The sentence came as a surprise to Savanna’s mother, Norberta Greywind, who is now ready to move forward on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women issues, and is first targeting the Fargo Police Department.

She wants an apology from Chief David Todd, she said. Police protocols and cultural understanding related especially to missing Native women issues must begin locally, and then move across the state and then across the nation. Savanna’s Act, a bill poised to help begin judicial reform regarding Native communities, written by Senator Heidi Heitkamp, is one step in the right direction, Norberta said, but it’s not enough.

“Compounding the pain that Savanna’s family has suffered was how the Fargo Police Department handled or appeared to mishandle the search for Savanna and Haisley Jo,” Allred said.

“They failed to find Savanna’s body, which was hidden inside a chest of drawers there, nor did they find the baby, Haisley Jo, who was hidden in a bed… The most important question is how could the police have searched and failed to find Savanna’s body and the baby earlier?

“These questions demand answers,” Allred said. “Many individuals in the Native American community have expressed a concern that the police do not have the same concern about missing, deceased, or injured Native American women that they would have about victims who are Caucasian. The way that the search for Savanna was conducted simply deepens the mistrust that many feel in law enforcement.”

The Greywind family demanded an apology from Fargo’s Police Department. Public Information Office Jessica Schindeldecker said Todd was not prepared to offer a statement at this time.

“The Fargo Police Chief should stop making excuses and stop trying to justify a search that in my opinion should be considered an embarrassment to the Police Department,” Allred said.

Before sentencing, Hoehn’s attempt at an apology to the court and to the Greywind family felt meaningless, and carried little weight as District Judge Thomas R. Olson gave Hoehn the maximum penalty. In reality, Hoehn will serve approximately 30 years before being eligible for parole.

After Hoehn's apology, someone in the courtroom yelled. "You are still a monster and you still have blood on your hands and it will never go away."

Judge Olson asked the woman for silence or he would have her removed. She complied. 

Hoehn will be 63 by the time he could be eligible for release, and then only into supervised probation for another five years.

The prosecution based their arguments on the fact that Hoehn pleaded guilty to child abuse and neglect after fracturing his three-month-old child’s skull in 2011.

The defense argued that Hoehn pled guilty to a misdemeanor count of child abuse, and that he should serve one year for every day he concealed information from police pertaining to Savanna Greywind’s whereabouts.

Savanna was eight months pregnant when co-conspirator and Hoehn’s former live-in girlfriend, Brooke Lynn Crews, currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, cut Savanna’s baby from her womb with a box cutter knife. Savanna was kept hidden in the apartment during multiple police searches until Hoehn and Crews placed her body into a hollowed out a dresser and then threw her into the Red River.

“I don’t think this man should ever walk free,” Norberta Greywind said. “He betrayed our family. He looked us in the eye with a straight face while our daughter lay dead in his apartment… We live in constant fear of being betrayed, preyed upon. I just fear that people want to hurt my family. This is no way to live life.

“My life has been forever changed. As for Savanna’s daughter, this man tried to take her and raise her as his own. He said the days he spent with my granddaughter were the happiest of his life. How sick is that?”

Family reported Haisley Jo is healthy and doing well. They frequently tell her about her mother.