Home Local News NORFOLK MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR MURDER OF YANKTON WOMAN

NORFOLK MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR MURDER OF YANKTON WOMAN

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A Norfolk, Nebraska man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Yankton, South Dakota woman in 2018.

49-year-old Joseph Lloyd James was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Omaha for First Degree Murder in Indian Country.

James was charged in the abduction and murder of Phyllis Hunhoff of Yankton on the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation on November 5th of 2018.

Authorities say James and another man forced their way into Hunhoff’s car as she left her mother’s home in Utica, South Dakota

They first took Hunhoff to Norfolk, where the other man left the vehicle.

James then drove Hunhoff’s vehicle, with her inside, to the Santee Sioux Indian Reservation in Knox County.

Authorities say James stabbed and strangled her there where she died in her vehicle.

James later set fire to Hunhoff’s body and her vehicle to conceal evidence of the murder.

Her DNA was later found on James’ shirt and James’s DNA was on clothing Phyllis Hunhoff was wearing when he killed her.