Alden Fast Horse was a kind, thoughtful man who would visit his mother at work, make jokes and keep people happy, his mother told the man who murdered him.

"My whole family has been deeply devastated," Lois Two Bears said as she testified during the sentencing of Sheldon McHugh on Tuesday at the Burleigh County Courthouse.

Two Bears said she found Fast Horse on June 5 in his room at the Ramkota Hotel and thought someone had beat him up. But she said she "lost it" when a hotel employee told her that her son had no pulse.

Two Bears, fighting tears, said she hoped McHugh would get the maximum punishment from the court for her son's brutal murder, but she expressed her desire for a different punishment.

"You should be put to death," she said.

South Central District Judge Bruce Haskell sentenced McHugh, 20, to life in prison with the possibility of parole for Class AAfelony on Tuesday. The judge also sentenced him to concurrent sentences of 20 years and 10 years for conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary, respectively.

The sentences will begin after McHugh has finished his current sentence in prison. McHugh was put in prison after his probation from a past aggravated assault conviction was revoked. According to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, McHugh is expected to continue serving that sentence until June 2010.

He will not get credit for time served, because he was arrested for probation violations prior to his arrest for murder.

Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Cynthia Feland said that McHugh will not be eligible for parole until he has reached 85 percent of his expected life span, which will be determined in a way similar to methods used for life insurance purposes. That age will not be determined until he has finished his aggravated assault sentence. Once he is eligible for parole, the parole board can determine whether to give him a release date.

Haskell also sentenced Elena Vassar, 23, to five years in prison with credit for time served for Class Cfelony robbery. Vassar has admitted to driving McHugh and others to the Ramkota several times.

Feland explained the incidents that led to Fast Horse's murder during the hearings on Tuesday. Vassar made three trips to the Ramkota, Feland said. First, she gave James and Jesse Wisbey a ride to the hotel to retrieve mislaid keys from Fast Horse's room. Next, she gave James Wisbey, McHugh and Leland Bad Brave a ride so Wisbey could pick up his wallet.

Bad Brave, 21, has pleaded not guilty to Class AA felony murder, Class A felony conspiracy to commit robbery and Class B felony burglary. He is slated to stand trial on April 13.

Feland outlined the actions leading up to Fast Horse's murder:

During the second trip, the men took other items belonging to Fast Horse from the hotel room. After returning to a party, McHugh and Bad Brave began discussing a return trip to Fast Horse's hotel room to get money. The men planned to wake Fast Horse, kidnap him and force him to empty his bank account at an ATM.

Vassar drove the men to the hotel a third time, and she did not know they were armed with knives. McHugh and Bad Brave returned without Fast Horse, and McHugh began to tell Vassar what happened, but she didn't want to know. She then drove them to the river, where the men discarded their knives in different directions.

The medical examiner could tell the injuries that killed Fast Horse had been inflicted by two people, but McHugh and Bad Brave continued to blame each other for the murder. McHugh eventually came forward and agreed to explain what happened in exchange for a binding plea agreement calling for life in prison with the possibility of parole.

McHugh told law enforcement officers he and Bad Brave entered the room, and McHugh slapped Fast Horse, who awoke and went after McHugh. McHugh said he stabbed Fast Horse in the stomach, but the medical examiner said it was a potentially lethal blow to the aorta.

After holding towels to the wound, McHugh said he and Bad Brave continued with their plan to take Fast Horse to an ATM and began dressing him. Feland said McHugh explained that they decided to "put him out of his misery" when it became apparent he was dying. They then inflicted numerous other wounds with their knives, some of which the medical examiner said also would have been lethal.

Fast Horse's family sobbed as Feland went through the facts of the case against McHugh, but Two Bears pulled herself together to present testimony in both cases.

Two Bears asked Haskell to impose the maximum sentences for each of the defendants. Haskell said he had to think over Vassar's sentence, since she had no prior criminal history and was somewhat of an unwitting participant. But he said he couldn't accept the arguments of Vassar and her appointed defense attorney, Tom Glass, that she was a follower in the matter.

"Certainly, at many, many points the defendant could have made a different choice," Haskell said. "Numerous times, she could have made different decisions."

The judge expressed less uncertainty toward McHugh - Haskell said he wished to put him away forever due to the "sheer brutality" of the crime as well as McHugh's statements to a probation officer writing a presentence investigation that he felt "angry" that he "had to kill" Fast Horse. He said he could not understand how McHugh could place any blame on Fast Horse.

"For someone to have a thought process even vaguely like that is beyond my comprehension," Haskell said.

While he expressed a desire to give McHugh life in prison without parole or consecutive sentences for the robbery and the burglary, Haskell "somewhat reluctantly" decided to follow the plea agreement rather than risk having to put Fast Horse's family through possible appeals and more court hearings.

McHugh also faces additional charges in Cass County for terrorizing and attempt to commit unlawful entry into a vehicle, both Class Cfelonies. Those charges stem from a chase McHugh led Fargo and Moorhead authorities on while they attempted to arrest him on a warrant for the probation violations. McHugh, who was labeled a "person of interest" in the murder at the time of the chase, has not appeared in court on the charges.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)