ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Ernest D. Pheasant, Sr., 47, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), pleaded guilty on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024 to first-degree murder in Indian Country, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Pheasant entered his guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge W. Carleton Metcalf.
According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, on Dec. 29, 2013, the body of Marie Walkingstick Pheasant was discovered inside a burned-out vehicle parked near Big Cove Road within the Qualla Boundary in the Western District of North Carolina. Investigators determined that the vehicle had been intentionally set on fire. An autopsy revealed that Marie died from stab wounds to the neck and abdomen. DNA retrieved from a baseball cap found near the vehicle was linked to the defendant, who was Marie’s estranged husband. During the investigation, law enforcement determined that Pheasant killed Marie at their home, then transferred her body to the car, drove it to Big Cove Road, and set it on fire. By Friday’s guilty plea, Pheasant admitted to murdering Marie willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation.
On April 7, 2022, following a review of unsolved homicides in the region, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit (MMU) opened a full interagency investigation into the case. Today’s guilty plea is the result of the joint investigation conducted by the MMU, the FBI in North Carolina, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the Cherokee Indian Police Department, and the EBCI Office of the Tribal Prosecutor.
Pheasant remains in federal custody. At sentencing, Pheasant faces a statutorily required sentence of life in prison. A sentencing date has not been set.
Assistant United States Attorney Alex M. Scott of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville is prosecuting the case.
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina continue to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of cases involving Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) and bringing justice to victims and their families. For more information about the Justice Department’s efforts to address the MMIP crisis, please visit the MMIP section of the Tribal Safety and Justice website at: https://www.justice.gov/tribal/mmip.
- U.S. Department of Justice release
