How a Washington felon ended up serving life sentence in South Dakota

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Three prisoners were indicted this week and accused of committing crimes inside the state penitentiary. A closer look at court documents raises questions about who is being held in South Dakota’s prisons. It turns out they’re not always from South Dakota, and the state isn’t required to let you know about them.

Tyler Larvie and Seth Peplinski are serving time for South Dakota crimes, but Kelly Irby is not. In fact, the man accused of having a homemade weapon inside the penitentiary is not listed as an inmate in any facility in South Dakota, and the Department of Corrections couldn’t give us his picture. We did some more checking and discovered Irby has no criminal record in South Dakota, and he’s never been charged in Federal court.

We contacted the Department of Corrections to find out what Irby is serving time for and how long his sentence is. The DOC responded that he was in custody because of an interstate compact with another state. We asked again about his crime and his sentence and were told the Department of Corrections wouldn’t release any other information. So we did some digging and discovered Irby is serving a life sentence out of Washington State.

His criminal history includes burglary and multiple robberies dating back to 1977.
A Washington newspaper says he was also accused of murdering an 89-year-old man in 2003, but in that case, Irby was found not guilty. His most recent crime happened inside the Washington State Penitentiary in 2006.

Court documents say he made a weapon out of a razor blade and used it to slash a man’s throat. The victim was also an inmate. Because it was his fifth felony conviction, he was sentenced to life behind bars. It turns out those bars are in South Dakota.

We also asked the DOC how many inmates are in South Dakota through interstate compacts and haven’t received a response.

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