John Jefferson
Inset: Pedro Simental (Pennington County Jail). Background: The motel where Simental allegedly killed a woman with a can of beans (KOTA).
A 44-year-old man in South Dakota will spend more than a decade behind bars for killing a 40-year-old woman last year, bludgeoning her to death with a can of beans after she ripped the football jersey he was wearing. Seventh Circuit Judge Joshua Hendrickson on Monday ordered Pedro Simental to serve 15 years in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Edleigha Little, authorities announced.
Simental last month pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter over the deadly November 2023 incident. According to a news release from the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office, Simental’s defense attorney and prosecutors both recommended the 15-year sentence.
The sentencing hearing
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Simental’s attorney emphasized that Little was in poor health at the time of the altercation and had consumed large amounts of alcohol, which likely contributed to her death by a “single, reckless blow” to the head.
Prosecutors told the court they were concerned about Simental’s “lack of accountability,” pointing out that his presentence investigation revealed he “takes little to no responsibility for his role in her death.”
Little’s niece addressed the court with a victim impact statement during the proceedings.
“She said her aunt was a caring, thoughtful person, and accused the defendant of regularly abusing the victim,” according to the release. “She asked the judge to impose a lengthy sentence so that he could not ‘do this to another woman and her family.””
Prior to handing down the sentence, Hendrickson “highlighted the difficulty of the case” before ultimately imposing the agreed-upon 15-year sentence. Simental had been facing a possible sentence of life in prison
Little’s death
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Rapid City Police Department at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2023, responded to the emergency room of Monument Hospital in the 300 block of Fairmont Boulevard after hospital personnel reported that an adult female had been admitted with suspicious injuries.
Emergency medical personnel had recently picked up the woman — later identified as Little — from the Stardust Motel in the 500 block of East North Street in Rapid City late on the night of Nov. 8, after an unknown male placed a 911 call requesting medical assistance.
Upon arriving at the scene, police reportedly observed that Little was alive but unconscious and had sustained multiple bruises to her head, neck, and face. Little succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead a few hours later.
A subsequent autopsy performed by the medical examiner on Nov. 13, determined that Little’s death was a homicide caused by “significant blunt force trauma” to the left side of her head, the Rapid City Journal reported.
Police said that Simental was at the motel when first responders arrived. In his initial interview with authorities, police said Simental “did not implicate himself in any way,” according to the Journal.
However, during a follow-up interview on Nov. 13, Simental reportedly admitted that on the night of Nov. 8, he and Little had gotten into an argument that escalated into a physical altercation. At some point during the interview, Simental told investigators that he “may have struck the victim in the left side of her head with a can,” prosecutors said.
Simental explained to police that the reason he struck Little was because she had grabbed his Denver Broncos jersey and he heard the clothing tear, the Journal reported.
KOTA reported that the can allegedly used to bludgeon Little was a can of beans.
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