Clayton Fire Thunder, Involuntary Manslaughter and False Statement, South Dakota 2025

RAPID CITY – In a shocking turn of events, Clayton Fire Thunder, 40, of Porcupine, South Dakota, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for involuntary manslaughter and two counts of false statement.

According to sources, the crime took place on September 15, 2022, when a male drove his partially clothed girlfriend to the Indian Health Services hospital on the Pine Ridge Reservation and dropped her off at the Emergency Department. The male did not provide his identity nor the female’s identity and told medical personnel that a firearm went off while they were engaged in intimate relations and that she had been shot accidentally.

Law enforcement identified and located the male at his residence several hours later. The male was cleaning the crime scene and sent text messages to the female’s relative’s claiming the shooting was an accident. A search of the residence was conducted, but law enforcement was unable to locate the handgun that the male claimed was used in the shooting.

A digital surveillance system that recorded traffic to the male’s house was seized by law enforcement. After reviewing the footage, law enforcement identified a vehicle that appeared at the male’s residence shortly after midnight and just before the female was brought to IHS. The investigation revealed that Fire Thunder intended on selling a firearm to the male in exchange for cash and/or methamphetamine.

Fire Thunder was interviewed by the FBI in March of 2023, where he gave a false statement and said that he did not have a firearm when the shooting occurred. He was reinterviewed again in October 2023, where he continued to deny that he possessed a firearm during the shooting death of the female.

A federal grand jury indicted Fire Thunder in May 2024. He was found guilty following a federal jury trial in Rapid City, South Dakota, in January of 2025. The jury found Fire Thunder guilty of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of false statement.

Fire Thunder was sentenced to a total of eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $300 in special assessments to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Fire Thunder was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.