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A 30-year-old man in New Mexico will spend more than three decades behind bars after he admitted to killing two men in a horrific fashion, chopping off one of their heads with an ax and burning it in the victim’s own wood stove. U.S. District Court Judge William P. Johnson on Monday ordered Shilo A. Oldrock, a member of the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, to serve a sentence of 35 years in a federal correctional facility, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Oldrock in August pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter in the victims’ deaths. Judge Johnson specifically handed down a 20-year sentence for the murder charge and a 15-year sentence on the manslaughter charge, with the sentences to run consecutively, meaning one after the other.
Shilo A. Oldrock (N.D. Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation 2018)
Following his release, Oldrock will be required to spend an additional five years on probation.
“The rationale behind the depraved violent criminal acts committed in this case may be hard to understand, but our message today is crystal clear: the FBI and its partners will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who show such a callous disregard for innocent lives,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda of the Albuquerque Field Office said in a statement. “The investigation of Oldrock, and his 35-year sentence, stand as a testament to the collaboration and dedication of the FBI, Navajo Nation Criminal Investigators, and the United States Attorney’s Office to bring justice to victims of violent crimes in Indian County.”
According to court documents, the slayings took place less than nine months apart and both victims — referred to in a news release as “P.S.” and “E.B” — were known to Oldrock.
Prosecutors say that Oldrock and the victims on the night of Jan. 29, 2021, were drinking and using methamphetamine when P.S. and E.B. got into a physical altercation that ended with P.S. being physically injured.
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“Instead of rendering aid, Oldrock decided to ‘finish off’ P.S. and struck him in the head with a metal iron, killing him,” prosecutors wrote. “Oldrock burned P.S.’s body in a burn barrel to cover up his crime.”
Shortly after P.S. was killed, the victim’s family found his abandoned car and reported him missing. His name was subsequently added to the FBI’s List of Native Americans Verified as Missing Throughout New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. The family continued the search for the victim for about two years following his death at the hands of Oldrock, prosecutors said.
The slaying of P.S. had deleterious effects on Oldrock’s mental state, leading him to attack E.B several months later.
“On October 10, 2021, driven by paranoia from the killing of P.S. and the death of his grandmother, Oldrock attacked E.B., stabbing him approximately 22 times before using an ax to decapitate him. Oldrock later admitted to law enforcement that he killed both P.S. and E.B.,” prosecutors wrote.
Authorities noted that Oldrock believed E.B. “would harm him in order to cover up [P.S.’s] murder.” Oldrock also told several other people that he believed [E.B.] had killed one of his family members and injured his mother.
Oldrock told a witness that after decapitating E.B., he “threw his head in the wood stove which is located on the interior of [E.B.’s] residence, per court documents. After the admission, Oldrock told the witness, “What comes around, goes around.”
“It is our solemn duty to bring justice and answers to grieving Tribal communities,” U.S. Attorney Uballez said in a statement. “No amount of investigation, prosecution, or years in prison will bring back a murdered loved one. But this team of local, tribal, and federal law enforcement partners will meet the case of each missing and murdered Indigenous person with urgency, transparency, and coordination.”
