Reinbold sentenced on assault charges

Reporter

A former Oklee man was sentenced Friday, Sept. 15 in Pennington County District for assaulting two corrections officers and attempting to escape from custody in June 2022. At the time of the assaults, Eric James Reinbold, 47, was in custody while awaiting the resolution of a murder case for which he was ultimately convicted.

Reinbold was sentenced to an amended felony charge of second degree assault (dangerous weapon – not a firearm) and a felony charge of fourth degree assault. For the former charge, Reinbold was sentenced to the 36-month mandatory sentence. That sentence is to be served concurrently with his 480-month prison sentence for the murder of his wife, Lissette, in 2021. For the latter assault charge, he was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Reinbold was given credit for 468 days served. He remains incarcerated in Rush City.

In addition, Reinbold was ordered to not use or possess firearms or ammunition for his lifetime unless his civil rights are restored. He was ordered to supply a DNA sample. For each count, Reinbold was ordered to pay a $50 fine. He was also ordered to pay one set of surcharges of $85 as well as $3,844.04 in restitution.

As part of the plea agreement, a felony charge of attempted escape from custody was dismissed.

The latest charges stemmed from the assaults of two Pennington County corrections officers June 4, 2022. Armed with a white colored pencil, Reinbold assaulted two corrections officers and attempted to escape from custody. Katy Rolland, then a Pennington County corrections officer, suffered bruising and a sprained neck or other injuries as a result of the assault. The other corrections officer, Alex Yorba, suffered from sciatica at the time and could be seen grabbing his lower back on videos from the assault.

During the sentencing hearing, Reinbold apologized to Rolland, Yorba and fellow corrections officer Briana Vosen. “I feel bad about it,” he said.

During a plea hearing two weeks ago, attorneys argued whether Reinbold’s sentence for second degree assault should be served consecutively to or concurrently with the sentence for murder. On Friday, Judge Tamara Yon ruled that the sentence should be served concurrently with the sentence for murder. After reviewing the arguments and applicable case law, she said the district court has to base its ruling on the criminal conduct for the particular offense. The court must also compare it to particular offenses with other similar defendants in the same situation. Yon ruled that it didn’t rise to the level that it should be a consecutive sentence.

However, Yon said the state made good arguments about the public safety risk, Reinbold’s track record and the premeditated element of this incident. Yon said Reinbold exhibited bad behavior in this incident, and has a terrible criminal history and a terrible track record.

Reinbold was arrested in August 2021 after being on the lam for 26 days following the murder of his wife. He was arrested on a vacant farmstead in rural Oklee. Reinbold had only been out of prison for about three months when he murdered his wife. He had received compassionate release from federal prison and was on federal supervision at the time of the murder.

During the murder trial three months after the assaults, the two corrections officers testified about the assaults. Two videos showing different angles of the assaults and attempted escape were also played. Neither video contained sound.

On June 4, 2022, Rolland was disbursing medications to inmates at about 9:23 p.m. On the video, Reinbold could be seen exiting his cell pod to obtain over-the-counter medication from Rolland. With no verbal warning and armed with a white colored pencil, he approached and grabbed for Rolland, who was looking down at a medication scanner. Rolland backed up, falling in an attempt to get away from him. He then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her. At some point during the incident, Rolland’s glasses fell off of her.

Yorba could be seen placing his body between the two of them.

Reinbold placed the colored pencil, measuring about eight inches, to different areas on Yorba’s neck. He testified that he thought Reinbold was possibly going to kill him. While threatening Yorba with the pencil, he told Yorba to open the door. Since Yorba wasn’t complying, Reinbold ripped Yorba’s badge off of his chest in an attempt to use it to open a door.

Vosen intervened. Yorba testified that Vosen deployed a Taser three times. The first time, the two probes landed on Reinbold. However, they didn’t attach appropriately to Reinbold since he was wearing three shirts and a sweater. Yorba, who is no longer employed as a corrections officer here, said the Taser slowed Reinbold down.

Yorba testified that Reinbold was on top of him when Vosen deployed the Taser a second time. Yorba couldn’t remember if it affected Reinbold.

The third deployment was effective at subduing Reinbold, who then began complying with instructions. Sometime later, two Thief River Falls police officers could be seen escorting Reinbold to another part of the jail.

Earlier court filings

On July 20, 2023, prior to a plea hearing in the assault case, Yon granted a state motion seeking to impeach Reinbold with his prior convictions if the assault and escape case moved forward to trial. One conviction involved a 2015 charge of second degree assault involving his wife and two children in which Reinbold blocked his wife and two children’s exit from their property while he was armed with a handgun. The other conviction was a 2018 federal conviction for possession of unregistered destructive devices. In 2017, pipe bombs were found on the property of Reinbold’s family. The other conviction was the murder conviction.

Yon also granted the state the ability to present evidence of the underlying circumstances of his convictions in the 2015 case and underlying circumstances of the 2021 murder case. The state sought to present such evidence to show motive, intent and knowledge, according to online court documents.

Yon denied two defense motions seeking to dismiss the felony first degree assault charge for lack of specificity and lack of probable cause, respectively.

Reinbold has appealed his conviction for second degree murder in the 2021 murder of his wife, Lissette. A Pennington County jury convicted him in September 2022. He was sentenced to 480 months in prison for that case.

The appeal has been stayed since Reinbold’s attorney, Chris Cadem, has sought to remand the matter to the district court for postconviction proceedings. The Minnesota Appeals Court had given Cadem until Monday, Sept. 11 to file a petition for postconviction relief or another appropriate motion in district court, or a motion in the Appeals Court to reinstate the appeal. In court records, it was noted that Cadem planned to “investigate and develop a record on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and a discovery violation, among other possible issues.” Prior to sentencing in the murder case, Reinbold was represented by attorney Bruce Rivers.

The Court of Appeals has since granted Cadem an additional 60 days to file the petition with a new deadline of Monday, Nov. 13. In an affidavit to the court, Cadem indicated that, after the initial stay was granted, he had received information that Rivers hadn’t previously investigated. He then arranged for Reinbold to meet Monday, Aug. 21 with a potential expert witness. However, that meeting was unexpectedly cancelled since there was an emergency at the prison. The potential expert witness is a psychologist who is an expert on the phenomenon of innocent fleeing. They are now set to meet Wednesday, Sept. 20.

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