[R-G] AFTER SEVEN YEARS NORTH DAKOTA ARRESTS MADE IN MURDERS OF TWO NATIVES

[Hunter Gray]

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR  [AUGUST 26 2008]:

Almost seven years have passed since September 2001 when Jerome DeCoteau 
[Turtle Mountain Ojibwe] was found murdered in his home at Grand Forks, 
North Dakota.  At almost the same time, Robert and Damian Belgarde [also of 
Turtle Mountain] were found slain in an isolated rural area south of Grand Forks. 
Less than a year later, July 2002, 19 year old Russell Turcotte [again a 
Turtle Mountain Ojibwe] was murdered somewhere west of Grand Forks and his 
body found months later in a very remote setting.

In 2003, a family member was arrested and eventually convicted in the Jerome 
DeCoteau murder.  Now, finally, after a laconic law enforcement 
investigation, the alleged killers of the two Belgarde men have just been 
arrested.  The slayer of Russ Turcotte remains unknown -- and that case 
certainly continues.  Russ' murder has generated some national news coverage 
from time to time.

Immediately following the DeCoteau and Belgarde murders, we posted widely to 
the Four Directions and set up a large Lair of Hunterbear page on those 
matters; and, following the Turcotte tragedy, we immediately posted and 
added much on that to the rapidly growing webpage.
http://hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20COMMISSION%20PAGE%204.htm

This particular page on the North Dakota murders of Natives is among our 
most consistently and heaviest visited to this very moment.

My youngest, son, Peter Gray Salter, of Lincoln NE picked this story up and 
sent it early this morning.  Another son, John, Fargo ND area, e-mailed me. 
There were telephone calls from Grand Forks.

I want to say that we greatly appreciate the interest in all of this from 
persons of good will -- many on these various discussion lists and others 
far and away.  Many of you have written letters to the appropriate North 
Dakota state officials listed by us  We are very grateful.

The search for the killer of Russ Turcotte continues.  We shall certainly 
keep you all posted.

In Solidarity.

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]


Case generates controversy online
Stephen J. Lee
Grand Forks Herald - 08/26/2008
Although Sheriff Dan Hill and other authorities have declined to say almost 
anything about the Belgarde case for the past seven years, it has generated 
some controversy online.

Belgarde father and son, Robert and Damien, were members of the Turtle 
Mountain Band of Chippewa at Belcourt, N.D. About the same time they were 
killed, another Grand Forks man from the tribe died of homicidal violence in 
his home. Jerome DeCoteau's His body wasn't found until late September, 
2001. Only 10 months later, Russell Turcotte, 19, also a member of the 
Turtle Mountain band, disappeared, after he was last seen at a Grand Forks 
truck stop. His body was found several months later in a remote area near 
Devils Lake. His death was ruled a violent homicide, but no one has been 
arrested. DeCoteau's son, imprisoned on other charges in South Dakota, was 
arrested in the death of his father in 2004.

Former UND professor John Salter, who now uses the name Hunter Gray, has 
written regularly about the cases online, criticizing law enforcement for 
not putting enough resources to solve the cases and suggesting it's because 
the men were American Indians.

Several months ago, Robert Belgarde's mother expressed sadness and anger to 
the Herald that the murders of her son and grandson had not yet been solved.

[Note by Hunter:  Again, our large webpage:

http://hunterbear.org/NATIVE%20AMERICAN%20COMMISSION%20PAGE%204.htm  ]

Men accused of execution-style murders of father, son
Stephen J. Lee
Grand Forks Herald - 08/26/2008

Seven years after the murder of a father and son on a remote gravel road 
southwest of Grand Forks, two men have been arrested and charged with 
murdering them.

According to Jason McCarthy, the assistant Grand Forks County state's 
attorney prosecuting the case, Joseph Moncada, 26, and Billy Jo Aguero, 30, 
each was arrested and charged Monday with four AA felony counts, for murder 
and conspiracy to commit murder, in the gun deaths Sept. 7, 2001, of Robert 
Belgarde, 40, and Damien Belgarde, 19, both of Grand Forks. The maximum 
penalty for each charge is life in prison without parole.

In one of the most dramatic and cold-blooded killings in the county's 
history, the bodies of the father and son were found five miles southwest of 
Grand Forks on a remote road next to a buffalo pasture, the apparent victims 
of an execution.

It's the only double homicide in the county in the memory of Sheriff Dan 
Hill, he said at the time of the killings.

Officials were saying very little about the arrests Monday, but it seems 
clear they think the killings were drug-related, based on court documents.

The case

Robert Belgarde's body was on the gravel road; he had been shot four times 
in the back and arms with a 9 mm semi-automatic gun, sheriff's deputies said 
at the time. He also had blunt force injury to his forehead, causing a 
concussion, and a laceration to his face and neck.

Damien Belgarde's body was found in the ditch, next to the wire fence. He 
had been shot seven times in the head, neck, shoulder and back, also with a 
9 mm semi-automatic gun.

It appeared he had attempted to run from the scene, which is about five 
miles west of Interstate 29 on the gravel extension of 32nd Avenue South.

The identical charges filed against Moncada and Aguero allege each shot both 
Belgardes "with a firearm several times," as well as that each conspired to 
kill both men.

Privately, law enforcement sources have told the Herald for a year or more 
that the case was basically solved, except for loose ends required for an 
actual arrest.

At the time of the murders, officials in the sheriff's department told the 
Herald the public was not in danger and that it appeared the Belgardes knew 
their killers.

Both Belgardes had been in trouble with the law, but investigators at the 
time said none of their previously known criminal activity seemed to be 
involved in their execution-style deaths.

The day before he was killed, Damien Belgarde had been charged with stealing 
a car linked to the holdup weeks before of a Grand Forks motel, according to 
news reports at the time. He also was a suspect in the burglary of two other 
motels, police said at the time.

An arrest warrant was served on Moncada near the Twin Cities, and on Aguero 
near San Antonio, McCarthy said. The arrests apparently went without 
incident, he said.

Both men have insubstantial criminal records involving drugs and violence, 
in Grand Forks and elsewhere, and have spent time behind bars.

McCarthy would not say if either man was incarcerated at the time of the 
arrest warrants being served. According to one law enforcement source, 
however, Moncada was incarcerated when served with the arrest warrant 
Monday.

McCarthy said the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation was involved 
in the arrest of Moncada.

Extradited to N.D.

Both men will have to be extradited to North Dakota, McCarthy said.

Aguero's criminal record includes a 2004 federal conviction for being a 
felon in the possession of firearms; he was sentenced to two years in 
prison, to be served at the same time as a state district court sentence.

Aguero was convicted in state district court in Grand Forks in 2002 of the 
aggravated assault Aug. 6, 2001, of a juvenile male outside a Taco John's in 
Grand Forks. Arrested Aug. 6, 2001, he paid his own $5,000 cash bond to bail 
out on that charge Aug. 10, 2001, less than a month before the Belgardes 
were murdered. He jumped his bail, in fact, and later had to forfeit the 
$5,000 for failing to appear, according to court documents,

In late 2002, he was arrested in Texas on the 2001 assault and had to be 
extradited from the San Antonio area to face the charge in court; he was 
sentenced to five years in prison with three years suspended.

In that case, prosecutors went to court to force Aguero to give a DNA 
sample, which he had refused to do voluntarily, according to court records.

In 2000, Aguero was convicted of misdemeanor assault in state district court 
in Grand Forks and sentenced to a year in the county jail. His co-defendant 
in that case was Lee Avila of East Grand Forks, according to court 
documents.

Avila was murdered in a drug-related shooting in his East Grand Forks home 
in June 2005, in an incident linked to a wide federal drug crime 
investigation, Operation Speed Racer, that has led to more than 60 people 
being charged.

In Monday's court filing of the charges, Aguero is identified as Billy Joe 
Valdez Aguero; in other court documents, including his $5,000 bond in 2001, 
his signature can be seen rendered as "Billy Jo Aguero."

In 2002, Aguero gave the court an East Grand Forks address in the 1100 block 
of Fifth Avenue Northwest.

Drug charges

In 2002, Moncada was convicted in state district court in Grand Forks of 
possessing cocaine and marijuana with the intent to deliver, a Class A 
felony, and sentenced to four years in prison, with 2½ years suspended.

To face that charge, Moncada was extradited from the jail in Crookston to 
Grand Forks. He also spent time last year in the Tri-County Correctional 
Center in Crookston, a jail official said Monday.

Grand Forks County State's Attorney Peter Welte said he could not comment on 
the case, including whether others might be arrested in connection with it.

"This has been a cooperative effort involving both local law enforcement and 
the state BCI," Welte said Monday. "To preserve the integrity of the case, 
we're withholding any further comments until the completion of the case."

However, the charging document filed Monday gives some indication of the 
breadth of the investigation. The list of possible witnesses for the 
prosecution includes apparent relatives and friends of the Belgardes, as 
well as of the defendants; Aguero himself also is listed as a prosecution 
witness but not Moncada.

The list also includes four FBI agents, a federal Drug Enforcement 
Administration agent, four officers in the Grand Forks Narcotics Task Force, 
East Grand Forks Police officers and Polk County Sheriff's deputies.

Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send e-mail to 
slee at gfherald.com



HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

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In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
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high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings.  Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunter Bear]  
http://www.hunterbear.org/GRAY%20LANDS%20AND%20GRAY%20GHOSTS.htm