GUILTY SD - Kari Kirkegaard, 56, raped & murdered, Sioux Falls, 16 March 2014

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty for a parolee accused of raping and killing a Sioux Falls woman in her home in March...

Judge Mark Salter, who already has pushed Kryger's trial back to July, had set a deadline of Dec. 1 for a decision from prosecutors on whether to seek the death penalty.

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Christopher Kryger refused to be transported to the Minnehaha County Courthouse for a motions hearing to go over evidence. Judge Mark Salter and legal counsel agreed to reschedule the hearing.

However, that decision did not go over well with members of the victim's family, who stood up and voiced their disapproval with Salter's decision.

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A Sioux Falls judge ruled Monday that evidence pointing out similarities in the 2008 rape and assault of an Ethiopian woman and last year's slaying of Kari Anne Kirkegaard can be presented in the trial against Christopher Kryger...

Judge Mark Salter noted that both women were home alone, both were taken by surprise, both were subdued by force and both of their homes were unlawfully entered.

Kryger's lawyer, Mark Kadi, argued that the dismissed 2008 case would be prejudicial if presented to jurors. "There's a reason why the 2008 case was dismissed," Kadi said. "It was dismissed because there wasn't enough evidence. I just don't know if it's relevant."

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A Sioux Falls extended family is mourning the loss of a loved one to homicide for the second time in less than a year.

Anthony Gabriel, the city's first homicide victim of 2015, was the second cousin of Kari Kirkegaard, who was the city's first homicide victim of 2014...

Gabriel, 18, was shot in the head Jan. 29 while driving on Louise Avenue following a dispute with two other teenagers. He died Feb. 1.

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Kryger was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2014 death of Kari Anne Kirkegaard, as well as guilty on charges of forcible rape and first-degree burglary. The only charge on which he was found not guilty was a lesser rape count...

The minimum sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison...

Sentencing will be delayed until an undetermined date, Judge Mark Salter said.

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Kryger gets life for 'cold-blooded murder' of Sioux Falls woman

A Sioux Falls man will spend the rest of his life in prison for raping and killing a woman in her home.

Christopher Dean Kryger was found guilty of first-degree murder, forcible rape and first-degree burglary in November. On Thursday, he was sentenced to life with no parole for the murder and received the maximum sentences for rape and burglary to run concurrent with the life sentence.

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