Redby couple sentenced for reservation murder

Published 3:34 pm Wednesday, December 29, 2010

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Redby couple has been sentenced for the murder last year of a 21-year-old man on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank on Wednesday sentenced 24-year-old Natalie Renee Delores Ann Smith to 10 years in prison.

On Tuesday, the judge sentenced 28-year-old Kelly James Maxwell to 18-and-a-half years.

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Maxwell and Smith pleaded guilty last March to aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

In their plea agreements, Maxwell and Smith admitted aiding each other in the killing of Curtis Leslie Charles Heinonen on Oct. 1, 2009.

An FBI affidavit says Heinonen’s unclothed body was found under some logs in the yard of a Redby residence. Officers discovered shoes, pants and boxer shorts two blocks away in Smith’s yard.