Investigators say the child led officers to her mother’s body and later repeated short statements that now sit at the center of the charging record.
RIVERTON, Wyo. — The homicide case against Sterling Louis Black Jr. has been defined from the start by what his young daughter told police after they entered a Riverton motel room and found her mother, Angelina Rose Bell, dead on the bathroom floor with blood pooled beneath her head.
Those statements gave investigators an early narrative in a case where police initially released almost no detail beyond saying foul play was suspected. Prosecutors later used the child’s account, along with surveillance video, physical evidence and family interviews, to support a second-degree murder charge. A judge has now bound the case over to district court, leaving unanswered questions about how much of the child’s account will appear at trial and how the defense will respond to the affidavit’s timeline.
According to the probable cause affidavit, officers were dispatched to the Ol’ Wyoming Motel at about 7 a.m. on March 7 after a caller reported that a little girl had found her mother and was not sure whether she was conscious. Officer Scott Christoffersen encountered the child at the scene, and she pointed him toward the bathroom. “Momma’s in my bathroom,” she said, according to the document. Officers then found Bell, 24, lying on her right side on the floor. Officer Brandon Brookover saw no signs of life. The girl was later taken from the motel to the police department, where she was interviewed by a victim-witness coordinator and met by tribal Department of Family Services personnel before being released to family members.
It was at the police department that the statements later repeated in news coverage entered the case file. The affidavit says the child told the coordinator, “Daddy went for a walk,” “Mommy has blood on her,” “Daddy was mad at Mommy,” and “Mommy’s dead.” Those short lines do not explain everything that happened, but they gave detectives a way to frame the final hours inside the room. They also narrowed attention toward Black, 25, who police said was the registered tenant and had been renting the room since Feb. 12. Black and Bell had arrived at the motel with the child around 11 p.m. the night before, according to surveillance video reviewed by Detective Peter McCall. The same footage showed Black leaving at 2:41 a.m., returning at an unknown time and leaving again around 5:21 a.m.
The physical evidence added a second layer. The affidavit says officers found a spent 9 mm shell casing in the toilet bowl, a fired bullet on the bathroom floor near the vanity and a plastic firearm case for a SAR 9 mm semiautomatic handgun containing two empty magazines. Bell appeared to have been shot near the bridge of the nose by her right eye. McCall wrote that a large stippling pattern around the wound suggested the shot came from several inches to 2 feet away. He contrasted that with the tearing and heavy burns expected in a direct contact wound. The affidavit also said there were signs of drug and alcohol use in the bathroom, though the filing available to the public did not tie those items to a tested substance result or explain whether they played any role in the killing.
Investigators then moved outward from the room. Motel employees told police Black left around 5:15 a.m., and video was later used to confirm that he had walked away wearing a black hooded shirt, gray sweatpants and black slide sandals. A black 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander registered to him was parked outside, but officers said no keys were found in the room. Black’s father arrived at the scene and voiced concern for his son, according to the affidavit. McCall also contacted Bell’s relatives. He wrote that all of them gave consistent accounts of abuse in the relationship beginning in late December or early January, and that Bell had told family members Black had hit her. Several of them also knew he possessed a gun, the affidavit says.
What stands out in the record is not only what police say happened, but what still is not known. Neighbors in nearby motel rooms told investigators they had not heard an argument or a gunshot. Public reporting so far has not identified a precise time of death. Police said a firearm was recovered during the investigation, but the public summaries reviewed here did not say exactly where or when it was found. Nor do the publicly available reports explain where Black went after leaving the motel or what account, if any, he has offered to investigators beyond later turning himself in. Those gaps leave the affidavit strong on first response and forensic detail, but thinner on motive and the full sequence of events.
Black surrendered the afternoon of March 7 and was charged with second-degree murder. By the end of March, after a preliminary hearing in circuit court, a judge ruled there was enough evidence to send the case to Fremont County District Court for trial-level proceedings. Court records cited in later reporting said Black remained jailed on a $750,000 cash-only bond. Second-degree murder in Wyoming carries a penalty range of 20 years to life in prison. As of Apr. 7, public reports located for this review had not listed a district court arraignment date, leaving the next formal step still ahead.
Bell’s family and community have meanwhile marked her death outside the language of the affidavit. Her obituary said she spent her life in Riverton and Arapahoe, graduated from Arapaho Charter High School in 2022 and valued her Native culture and community. It listed work at local restaurants and later at the Casino, then gave the dates for her March 12 vigil and March 13 funeral. In that way, the case now sits in two public records at once: one built from police notes, shell casings and timestamps, and another built from the life Bell’s family said she lived before the killing.
For now, the prosecution’s foundation remains the child’s statements, the motel video and the evidence recovered from the bathroom. The case is pending in felony court, the murder charge remains active and the next public milestone will come when district court sets the arraignment or prosecutors file additional records describing how they intend to prove the case beyond the first affidavit.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.