A man in Wyoming was found guilty of killing his wheelchair-bound landlord when the landlord tried to kick the man out of his rental home.
A jury found Burdick Nelson Seminole guilty of all charges on Friday. He had been charged with killing Michael Standing Elk in the first degree. During a violent crime, he was also found guilty of firing a gun and killing someone with a gun during a violent crime. It took four days to reach the verdict.
Standing Elk kicked Seminole out of the house he was renting on the Wind River Indian Reservation on August 8, 2023, because, according to court documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Seminole was “using drugs and bringing young women to the residence to get them high.” This led to the fight between the tenant and landlord.
Standing Elk rented the house to other people after Seminole left, but Seminole came back to confront his former landlord for “talking smack.”
According to people who spoke to the police, Seminole went onto Standing Elk’s property while he was sleeping in bed and began hitting him in the head while telling him to “talk sā now.” As the fight between the two men got worse, Standing Elk’s partner called the police. Standing Elk was able to get out of bed and into his wheelchair. The argument in the living room went on as planned.
Standing Elk, on the other hand, had a gun. Seminole told the police that he made fun of Standing Elk by telling him, “You better make sure it’s loaded” and “Better make sure you got fāā” ammo.” Then, the affidavit says, he “pistol-whipped” Standing Elk and “turned around and heard a boom, but he didn’t know what hit him.”
As Standing Elk tried to shoot the Seminole but his gun got stuck, he is said to have said, “Okay, I’m done.” I see you, Burdick.
At that point, witnesses said Seminole shot Standing Elk. One of the other tenants rushed into the room and hit Seminole with a shot. Seminole told the police that this is when his “memory blacked out.”
What Seminole told the police was that he went back to Standing Elk’s house to confront him for “talking smack” and said that Standing Elk was “threatening his daughter,” as reported by Cowboy State Daily.
He drove himself to the Wind River Family and Community Health Care clinic after being shot by one of the housemates and was then arrested there.
A police report said that’s where they found “a black Springfield XDS gun from the front passenger seat of Seminole’s vehicle.” “I shouldn’t have picked up that gun,” Seminole was heard saying by an agent at the scene.
Seminole will be given a sentence on February 6. He could get life in prison.
