Authorities in Wyoming have taken a 25-year-old man into custody, charging him with the murder of his girlfriend at a motel in Riverton last week.
The Riverton Police Department reported that officers were dispatched to the motel early Saturday morning following reports of a deceased individual in one of the rooms. Upon investigation, they arrested Sterling Black, charging him with second-degree murder.
While the police have released limited information regarding the incident, an arrest affidavit, accessed by the Cowboy State Daily, disclosed that the victim, 24-year-old Angelina Rose Bell, was discovered by her young daughter.
The affidavit detailed a 911 call made by someone stating, “a little girl found her mother and was not sure if she was conscious but could see lots of blood.”
Responding officers arrived at the Ol’ Wyoming Motel around 7 a.m., where they discovered Bell’s body in the bathroom. They also found a spent 9mm bullet casing in the toilet bowl.
Although the young girl was initially only able to direct officers to her mother’s location, she later provided a victim witness coordinator with further details, saying, “Daddy went for a walk,” “Mommy has blood on her,” “Daddy was mad at Mommy,” and “Mommy’s dead.”
The girl, whose age was not given, was later sent home with family.
Officers documented a “large area” of stippling around a gunshot wound to Bell’s face, indicating she was shot at relatively close range, likely between “several” inches and two feet. The wound markings indicated she was not shot from a close enough range to indicate a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officers also found “signs of drug and alcohol use” in the bathroom. Outside the room, they found a black Mitsubishi Outlander registered to Black but no keys were located.
While police were on scene, Black’s father arrived and said he was concerned about his son. The father told investigators that Black, Bell, and their daughter lived at the motel, but he didn’t say “how he became aware of this incident,” the affidavit said.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the room and viewed video from the motel’s security camera, which showed Black leaving the room shortly after 5 a.m. wearing a black hooded shirt, grey sweatpants, and black slide sandals. Earlier video showed the family arriving at the room at about 11 p.m. the night before. Black left at about 2:41 a.m. and then returned “at an unknown time” before leaving for a final time at about 5:20 a.m.
None of the neighbors in the motel reported hearing gunshots or arguments, but multiple members of Bell’s family told police there had been abuse “between” the pair beginning in late December. Bell told family members several times that Black hit her.
Late Saturday afternoon, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office contacted Riverton Police and told them Black was surrendering. Riverton police retrieved Black from the sheriff’s office, and Black’s father gave officers the gun believed used in the murder.
The father said he found his son in an abandoned trailer on his property and told him to “do what is right.”
