A Nevada judge sentenced Nathan Chasing Horse to life in prison on Monday, closing a yearslong criminal fight that victims say began with betrayal and spiritual manipulation. Corena Leone-LaCroix, who testified against him, sat through the hearing and described what she called a life stolen from her.
A jury convicted Chasing Horse in January 2026 on 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women. After the verdict, Leone-LaCroix spoke publicly about the losses she said followed the abuse: "There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have," she told reporters, and later added, "The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever."
Judge Jessica Peterson, handing down the sentence, said Chasing Horse had taken advantage of the women’s trust and their spiritual beliefs, telling him directly, "You preyed on these women’s trusts and their spirituality, and you manipulated them for your own personal gratification." Chasing Horse told the judge, "This is a miscarriage of justice." The court record shows he will be eligible for parole only after serving 37 years.
The sentencing followed a yearslong effort to prosecute Chasing Horse after he was first arrested and indicted in 2023. Law enforcement in other U.S. states and in Canada opened follow-up investigations and filed additional criminal charges after his 2023 arrest, complicating a case that spans borders and years.
In Canada, British Columbia prosecutors charged Chasing Horse in February 2023 with sexual assault tied to an alleged incident near Keremeos in September 2018. That British Columbia case paused in November 2023 because of Chasing Horse’s charges in the United States and then resumed the following year. Prosecutors say a warrant remains outstanding in Alberta.
Defense statements at the Nevada hearing reiterated Chasing Horse’s denial, but jurors in the U.S. trial found the evidence sufficient to convict on all counts. The convictions in January and the life sentence on Monday mark the most consequential domestic outcome so far in a matter that has attracted cross-border attention.
Context to the charges has surfaced as victims and prosecutors have described a pattern in which Chasing Horse — the former actor who played the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s film Dances With Wolves — used his visibility and role in Indigenous ceremonies to gain access to women. He was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and, after the film, traveled across Indian Country attending powwows and performing healing ceremonies, according to court materials disclosed during the trial.
The tension in the case is clear: jurors and a judge concluded his actions amounted to calculated exploitation, while Chasing Horse maintains his innocence, calling the outcome unfair. At the same time, prosecutors and victims face the logistical and legal challenge of pursuing related charges in Canada while a life sentence now confines him in the United States.
The sentence answers the central question raised by the trial’s drama: why did a judge impose life in prison? Because a jury found Chasing Horse guilty on 13 charges — mostly sexual assaults against three women — and the judge said his conduct represented manipulation of trust and spirituality severe enough to warrant the maximum punishment; he will not be eligible for parole until 37 years have passed. Leone-LaCroix’s words at the hearing underscored the human cost: "The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever."
