Murder of Ronald Johnson
On April 12, 2011, at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, 63-year-old corrections officer Ronald Johnson was attacked and murdered by two inmates who were in the midst of a prison escape. They were later apprehended by other correctional officers while attempting to disguise themselves. The two prisoners, Eric Robert and Rodney Berget, were charged with murdering Johnson and were sentenced to death by the courts of South Dakota. Robert, who waived his right to appeal, was executed on October 15, 2012, while Berget, whose brother was sentenced to death in Oklahoma in 1987, was executed six years later on October 29, 2018, after also ending his appeals. A third prisoner, Michael Nordman, who provided the murder weapons, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to his role in the murder.
Murder
On the morning of April 12, 2011, the day of his 63rd birthday, corrections officer Ronald Johnson, who had been on the job for 23 years and was close to retiring, was working in one of the two Pheasantland Industries shop buildings which are state owned, but private operated and located within the prison compound of South Dakota State Penitentiary, where inmates work on upholstery, printing, signs, furniture, and other projects. Johnson, who was alone in the shop, was attacked by two prisoners, Eric Robert and Rodney Berget, who bludgeoned Johnson severely with a pipe, and wrapped his head in plastic wrap. The attack on Johnson resulted in his death; an autopsy result revealed that Johnson suffered at least three fatal head wounds and multiple fractures to his hands and arms, which were consistent with defensive injuries.At that time, Berget was serving two life sentences for kidnapping and attempted murder, while Robert was serving a sentence of 80 years for kidnapping. Both men, classified as maximum-security inmates, plotted to escape from prison since August 2010. Part of their plan was to masquerade as corrections officers by using the uniforms of the correctional staff to leave the facility. The two men, both aged 49, received the help of 47-year-old Michael Nordman, a convicted rapist who was serving a life term. Nordman provided the two men with the weapons they needed to facilitate their escape, specifically the pipe used to bludgeon Johnson to death and the plastic wrap used to cover his head. Robert and Berget waited until the shop was empty and Johnson was left alone. When that happened, they took the opportunity to attack and kill him.
After murdering Johnson and hiding his body, Robert put on Johnson's uniform and Berget climbed into a box placed on a cart. Posing as a corrections officer, Robert pushed the cart out of the shop and headed toward the vehicle gate sally port also known as West Gate of the prison compound. Jodi Hall, a female Corrections Officer who was working in the West Gate overpass observed that Robert had not swiped his identification card and asked him to identify himself. Although Robert tried to get away with it and introduced himself with a false identity, the plot was eventually discovered. An additional Corrections Corporal, Matthew Freeburg, was called to investigate. That’s when Robert began attacking Freeburg and Berget came out of the box he was concealed in to join in the assault. At one point the offenders tried to scale the exterior West Gate sally port gate in an attempt to climb out. Robert and Berget eventually surrendered and were subdued by the correctional officers.
The body of Johnson was eventually discovered inside the shop where he was attacked and murdered. Berget, Robert, and Nordman were soon charged with the first-degree murder of Ronald Johnson. Under South Dakota law, first-degree murder carries either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Perpetrators
Eric Donald Robert
Robert's early life
Born on May 31, 1962, in Massachusetts, Eric Donald Robert grew up in Wisconsin with his mother and sister, after his father left them when Robert was six months old. While his mother worked three jobs and studied for a college degree, Robert took on a father-like role in the family and took care of them. He excelled in school, graduating in his class at Hayward High School in 1980. He also completed a degree at the University of Wisconsin-Superior after he majored in biology, in addition to a minor in chemistry.During his adulthood, Robert worked as a wastewater treatment supervisor for the city of Superior in 2000. Although he was known to be getting along well with his co-workers in his job, Robert's ex-girlfriends from previous relationships described him as aggressive and mean, and some of them were previously abused by Robert.
On July 24, 2005, Robert kidnapped a woman near Black Hawk. For this offense, Robert was convicted and sentenced to 80 years imprisonment. He was transferred to South Dakota State Penitentiary to serve his jail term. At the time of Johnson's murder, Robert had served six years of his sentence.
Robert's trial
On October 27, 2011, Robert was sentenced to death after he pleaded guilty to murder and chose to forgo the option of sentencing by a jury. Robert reportedly told a judge to hand him a death sentence as he would kill more people if he did not get the death penalty, stating that his only regret was that he did not use the pipe that he killed Johnson with to murder the officer who caught him.In sentencing Robert to death, Second Circuit Judge Bradley Zell stated that there was no possibility for Robert to be rehabilitated and his brutal attack on Johnson arose from "extreme anger to the point of hatred." Attorney General Marty Jackley told the press that the state sought the death penalty based on five aggravating factors in this case, including the facts that the victim was a corrections officer, the manner of the victim's death and antecedents of the offenders, and the conduct of Robert showed that the death penalty, which was reserved for the most heinous crimes, was justified in Robert's case.
Rodney Scott Berget
Berget's early life
Born on May 15, 1962, in South Dakota, Rodney Scott Berget was one of six children in his family. Berget's family, who made a living out of farming prior to his birth, was extremely poor and lived in the rural areas of the state. After the farm failed, the family moved to Aberdeen. Berget's parents, Benford and Rosemary Berget, divorced sometime in the 1970s, after the loss of the farm, the new city life, and the gradual abusive nature of Berget's father, who also turned to alcoholism, took a toll on their marriage. Berget and his siblings were also abused by their father from a young age.During his adolescent years, Berget first went to prison after he committed theft. At age 25, in 1987, while serving a jail term for grand theft and prison escape, Berget and five other inmates broke out of the South Dakota State Penitentiary. He remained on the run for a month before being re-captured.
Berget was not the first person in his family to face the death penalty. In a separate case, Berget's brother, Roger Berget, was charged together with another man for the kidnapping and murder of schoolteacher Rick Patterson in Oklahoma in 1985. Roger and his co-accused Michael Smith were both sentenced to death in 1987. Roger was ultimately executed at age 39 on June 8, 2000, while Smith's death sentence was commuted to life without parole after an appeal in 1992. Berget himself was still incarcerated in South Dakota at the time of his brother's execution, and he grieved over the death of his brother. Berget was eventually released and would celebrate his 40th birthday in May 2002. According to Berget, it was the happiest moment of his life, which had been riddled with tragedy and darkness.
In 2003, Berget was arrested and convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder, and he was sentenced to double terms of life imprisonment. By the time he murdered Johnson, Berget had served eight years at South Dakota State Penitentiary.
Berget's trial
Like Robert, Berget pleaded guilty to the charge of murdering Johnson, and a sentencing trial was conducted for him in early 2012. Several witnesses were called to testify about Berget's tragic childhood and dark past, and the defense implored the court to not impose the death sentence but opt for life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds.On February 6, 2012, Berget was sentenced to death after the trial judge, Bradley Zell, rejected the defense's mitigation plea, stating that Berget's troubled childhood and other extenuating circumstances of his case were outweighed by the depravity of the crime.
Michael Joe Nordman
Nordman's early life
Michael Nordman was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on September 27, 1964. Little is known about Nordman's life before he turned to a life of crime in 1983, the same year when he was convicted and jailed for burglary. Four years later, in 1987, Nordman was charged with escape from legal custody and sent to prison a second time. However, his first major offense would take place three years later in 1990.On February 8, 1990, Nordman entered the home of a ten-year-old girl in Sioux Falls, asking for gas for his car. The girl went to look for a gas can out of kindness, but Nordman took the opportunity to attack and rape the girl. Additionally, Nordman even slammed the head of the victim's sister into a car and subsequently fled the scene. A manhunt was conducted and a day later Nordman was arrested in Klondike, Iowa.
Nordman, who pleaded guilty but insane to two charges of rape and abuse of a minor in July 1990, was sentenced to life in prison. At the time of Johnson's murder in 2011, Nordman had already served 21 years behind bars at South Dakota State Penitentiary.