This story has been updated with additional information from the Supreme Court’s decision.

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A man convicted of murdering his girlfriend at a Rapid City motel on New Year’s Day five years ago must get a new trial, according to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

In a decision publicly released on Thursday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen said the trial judge shouldn’t have allowed evidence of a prior act to be used against Dion Noel Bordeaux.

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A Pennington County jury found Bordeaux guilty of shooting Jeanette Jumping Eagle one time in the forehead and killing her while they were in a room at the Microtel in the early morning of January 1, 2020.

Bordeaux claimed that Jumping Eagle killed herself.

Retired Circuit Judge Robert Mandel allowed the prosecution to tell the jury about a different act of violence that Bordeaux had previously committed against a different victim in 2019.

Bordeaux had gotten into a fight with a cousin and stabbed him. When prosecutors sought to introduce the prior incident as evidence against Bordeaux during the murder trial, Bordeaux argued that the September 2019 assault wasn’t admissible because there is no case law supporting the prosecution’s claim that cousins and romantic partners are similar victims.

In May 2023, Circuit Judge Mandel entered a written order granting the prosecution’s motion to use the other act evidence pertaining to the September 2019 assault to prove Bordeaux’s intent.

In the order, Judge Mandel stated, “In both the charged offense and the incident of September 2019, Defendant is alleged to have been drinking alcohol with a victim with whom he had a close, even familial, relationship. In both instances the Defendant and victims are alleged to have been alone together before [an] argument ensued resulting in an unsuspected, violent attack by the Defendant.”

Chief Justice Jensen said there wasn’t a sufficient connection between the two to prove intent or a common plan or scheme.

“The evidence served no purpose other than to convince the jury that Bordeaux had a propensity for violence when intoxicated and that he intentionally acted in conformity with that propensity on the night that Jeanette was killed,” Chief Justice Jensen wrote.

The chief justice continued, “This powerful, inadmissible evidence would have placed Bordeaux on an unlevel playing field from the start, as the very first words the jury heard from the State during its opening statement were, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant, Dion Bordeaux, is a violent individual when he is drinking.’ It is difficult to conceive how the evidence would not have impacted the jury’s consideration of the case and Bordeaux’s involvement in Jeannette’s death.”

He added, “Based upon the overall record, including the absence of strong evidence on the question of Bordeaux’s intent and the use of this evidence by the State to buttress intent, there is a reasonable probability that, but for the errors, the result may have been different.”

All five justices agreed that the judge abused his discretion. But they split 3-2 on whether Bordeaux must get a new trial.

Justices Mark Salter and Scott Myren joined the chief justice in the decision to order the new trial.

Justices Patricia DeVaney and Janine Kern disagreed there was an absence of strong evidence on Bordeaux’s intent.

“Here, the evidence properly before the jury all points to Bordeaux shooting Jeanette, at close range, in the forehead with her own gun—as she predicted just days before—after he told her he would have to kill her,” Justice DeVaney wrote in the dissent.

“Shooting someone in the forehead at close range certainly evinces an intent to kill,” Justice DeVaney stated. “On this record, there is no reasonable probability that the jury would have reached a different outcome.”

Justice DeVaney was referring to a text between Jumping Eagle and Bordeaux that law enforcement extracted from the woman’s cell phone. Here is the exchange:

Bordeaux: OK then jen
. . .
Jeanette: I ain’t dumb . . . I put up w this shit before lmao
Bordeaux: Bitch, I love you, now I got to kill you 🙁
Jeanette: I ain’t dumb n I ain’t scared
Jeanette: W my own gun k
Bordeaux: I didnt fucking cheat but okayyyyy jen
Jeanette: U did . . . I ain’t dumb
Bordeaux: Lol
Jeanette: Fuck you
Bordeaux: Hi I wouldn’t
Jeanette: Stupid ass
Bordeaux: Your mine
Jeanette: Nahhh
Bordeaux: Aint no changing that

After prosecutors finished presenting their evidence, Bordeaux moved for a judgment of
acquittal and Judge Mandel denied the motion. Bordeaux then rested without calling any witnesses. After the jury returned with a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder, Judge Mandel sentenced Bordeaux to life in prison without parole.