White Earth man sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping

FARGO (KFGO) – A White Earth man has been sentenced to 50 years in a South Dakota prison for a kidnapping in March 2022. 

36-year-old Ryan Degroat was arrested at a rest stop north of Edgeley, North Dakota after abducting a 41-year-old woman from her mother’s home in Brown County, South Dakota.   

Law enforcement used cell phone triangulation to locate the suspect’s car in North Dakota. The woman was treated for her injuries at a Jamestown hospital. 

Degroat pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the single charge of first degree kidnapping. 

In 2015, Degroat was charged in Becker County District Court with felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon stemming from a domestic assault incident in Ogema in 2015. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was stayed for seven years with supervised probation that expired in 2022. 

Degroat was also charged with felony fifth-degree assault in 2005 that centered around a fight with tribal police officers. He was also charged with criminal vehicular operation in 2007.