BOTTINEAU, N.D. -- A man charged with killing two fellow employees of a hog farm near Souris, N.D., in Bottineau County is expected to plead guilty to murder charges Monday.
Jeremy Isaac Rodriguez Rios, 19, was charged with two counts of murder, both Class AA felonies, in Bottineau County District Court after police say he confessed to fatally shooting Brian Story, 37, and Christopher Sluder, 50, on March 24 at Turtle Mountain Pork, a commercial hog operation where all three men worked, according to court records. Rodriguez Rios is on track to attend a change of plea hearing Monday, when he is expected to enter guilty pleas to the charges. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Class AA murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
State’s Attorney Anthony Swain Benson, the county’s top prosecutor, said he could not comment on the evidence against Rodriguez Rios because the case is pending.
Bottineau County Sheriff’s deputies found Sluder and Story shot to death at the hog farm after 911 callers reported the two employees were unconscious, according to court records. The farm is between Landa, N.D., and Souris, which is about 75 miles northeast of Minot.
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One of the men was found in a hallway connecting two of the hog barns, while the other was in a hog barn on a walkway between pigpens, according to a court affidavit.
There were multiple spent 9 mm Winchester Luger cartridges near one of the victims, the affidavit said.
Based on interviews with employees, deputies determined Sluder, the hog complex manager, was shot between 6:53 and 8:17 a.m. March 24, according to court documents.
Employees also told authorities there was a verbal disagreement between some of the employees and Sluder and Story the day prior, according to the affidavit. They said Rodriguez Rios was among the employees involved in the verbal altercation with Sluder and Story.
Rodriguez Rios was arrested after officers questioned him about a picture of a black handgun that had been posted to his Facebook page 10 days earlier, according to the affidavit. Officers then obtained a search warrant for the suspect's apartment, which yielded a firearms case for a 9 mm handgun, a box of 9 mm Winchester ammunition and a cellphone. A 9 mm handgun was not found.
According to the affidavit, Rodriguez Rios admitted he shot both victims and disposed of the handgun in a sewage pit located below the hog barns.
Sluder, originally of Melvern, Kan., was married and had a son and a daughter, according to his obituary. Story, originally of Prineville, Ore., left behind a wife, two daughters, a son and a grandson, according to his obituary.
