A judge found enough evidence to move a second-degree murder charge against Sterling Louis Black Jr. to district court in Fremont County.

RIVERTON, Wyo. — A Riverton man accused of fatally shooting 24-year-old Angelina Rose Bell in a motel room she shared with him and their young daughter has been ordered to face trial in district court, extending a case that began with a 7 a.m. call about a child finding her mother bleeding in a bathroom.

The ruling keeps a second-degree murder charge in place against Sterling Louis Black Jr., 25, nearly a month after police said Bell was found dead at the Ol’ Wyoming Motel on North Federal Boulevard. Investigators say Black turned himself in later that day after officers identified foul play and recovered evidence pointing to a shooting inside the room. The immediate stakes now are whether prosecutors move quickly to arraignment and whether the defense challenges the evidence gathered from the room, motel video and witness interviews.

The case began early March 7, when Riverton police officers Brandon Brookover and Scott Christoffersen were sent to the motel after a caller reported that a little girl had found her mother and could see a lot of blood. Inside the room, officers found Bell on the bathroom floor with blood pooled under her head. The girl led officers to the bathroom and told one of them, “Momma’s in my bathroom,” according to the charging affidavit. Police later said Black, Bell and the child had arrived at the motel the night before, around 11 p.m. Security video reviewed by detectives showed Black leaving the room at about 2:41 a.m., returning at an unknown time and leaving again around 5:21 a.m. Motel staff also told investigators he left around 5:15 a.m. and did not come back.

Investigators said they found a spent 9 mm casing in the toilet bowl and a plastic gun case in the room for a SAR 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Detective Peter McCall wrote that the case held two empty magazines but no gun. When Bell’s body was examined at the scene, investigators noted what appeared to be a bullet entry wound near the bridge of her nose by her right eye. McCall wrote that the pattern of stippling around the wound suggested the gun was fired from several inches to about 2 feet away, not pressed directly against the skin. He also wrote that one bullet was found on the bathroom floor near the vanity and that Bell showed no exit wound. Officers said there were signs of drug and alcohol use in the bathroom, but public records cited in the case do not say who used the substances or whether toxicology results have been filed.

Police have released only a narrow public account, saying officers responded to a report of a possible dead woman, secured the room and quickly suspected foul play. A later police update said detectives had identified a person of interest and recovered a firearm during the investigation. Court filings added the more detailed picture. The child was taken to the police department, where a victim-witness coordinator interviewed her while tribal Department of Family Services staff also met with her. The affidavit says the girl made several short statements there, including “Daddy went for a walk,” “Mommy has blood on her,” “Daddy was mad at Mommy,” and “Mommy’s dead.” Those statements have become some of the case’s most important early evidence, though any later dispute over how they are introduced in court remains ahead.

The broader relationship history also became part of the probable cause showing. McCall wrote that multiple members of Bell’s family gave consistent statements describing abuse in the relationship beginning in late December or early January. According to the affidavit, Bell had told relatives on several occasions that Black hit her, and several family members knew he had a gun. None of the neighboring motel occupants reported hearing either an argument or a gunshot from the room, the document says, a detail that leaves some parts of the timeline unresolved. Public records available so far do not explain exactly when Bell was shot, what happened during the hours when Black was away from the room, or where the firearm was recovered after police said one was found.

Black turned himself in on the afternoon of March 7, about nine hours after Bell was discovered, according to court accounts published later in March. He was charged in Riverton Circuit Court with one count of second-degree murder. Under Wyoming law, that charge carries a potential sentence of 20 years to life in prison. By March 31, after a preliminary hearing, a judge found probable cause to bind the case over to Fremont County District Court. Court records cited at that stage showed Black was being held at the Fremont County Detention Center on a $750,000 cash-only bond. As of Tuesday, Apr. 7, no newer public report located in this review showed that a district court arraignment date had been announced.

Bell’s death also drew attention because of who she was outside the case file. Her obituary said she was born in Riverton, grew up in Riverton and Arapahoe, graduated from Arapaho Charter High School in 2022 and practiced traditional Native American ways. It said she had worked at the Rusty Truck, the Airport Café and later as a housekeeper at the Casino. Funeral services were held in mid-March at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, followed by burial at Arapaho Catholic Cemetery. Those details have stood beside the bare language of the charging record, which identifies her mainly by age, by location and by the violence that ended her life.

The case now stands between the affidavit stage and formal district court proceedings. Prosecutors have secured a bind-over on the second-degree murder count, Black remains charged and Bell’s killing remains the focus of the pending felony case. The next milestone is a district court arraignment or another public filing that lays out how both sides plan to fight over the evidence assembled from the motel room, the surveillance video and the statements taken on March 7.

Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.