Inset, left to right: Angelina (Bell Davis Funeral Home) and Sterling Louis Black Jr. (Fremont County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Wyoming hotel where Bell was killed in March 2026 (Riverton Police Department).
A Wyoming judge has rejected a plea deal that would have let a 25-year-old man accused of shooting the mother of his 5-year-old daughter in the face serve less than two decades in prison.
Fremont County District Judge Jason Conder on Thursday denied the proposed deal for Sterling Louis Black Jr., who is charged in the slaying of 24-year-old Angelina Bell.
Under the terms of the agreement, Black, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, would have pleaded guilty to one count each of manslaughter and child endangerment and received a sentence of 18 to 20 years in a state correctional facility, according to a report from Cowboy State Daily.
Bell's father, Byron Bell, told Cowboy State Daily that he vehemently opposed the agreement, which he called the "deal of the century," and was relieved when the judge formally denied it.
"I wanted the judge to understand that my daughter's life wasn't worth any number, especially 18 to 20 years," he told the newspaper. "I believe the more years her killer spends behind bars the better."
Conder reportedly rejected the deal mainly because it gave him no leeway in Black's sentencing, locking in 18 to 20 years regardless of the circumstances.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the couple's 5-year-old daughter discovered her mother's body inside a room at the Ol' Wyoming Motel in the 400 block of North Federal Boulevard in Riverton on March 7.
An unidentified person called 911 and reportedly told the dispatcher that a "little girl found her mother and was not sure if she was conscious, but could see lots of blood." Investigators responding to the scene determined the woman, later identified as Angelina Bell, had been shot in the face, according to court documents.
The victim's daughter directed officers to the body.
"Momma's in my bathroom," the child reportedly told police.
Investigators later brought the girl to the police station, where she spoke with a victim-witness coordinator. During those conversations, the girl reportedly made several statements about what had happened inside the motel room.
According to investigators, those statements included:
"Daddy went for a walk.""Mommy has blood on her.""Daddy was mad at Mommy.""Mommy's dead."
Inside the bathroom, detectives recovered a spent 9 mm shell casing from the toilet bowl. They also found a plastic handgun case for a SAR 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, though the firearm itself was not initially located. The case contained two empty magazines, investigators said.
Bell appeared to have a bullet entry wound near the bridge of her nose next to her right eye, police reportedly wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Investigators also observed stippling — a pattern caused by gunpowder particles touching skin — across her face. The presence of stippling and the absence of gas burns suggested the weapon was fired from "several inches to 2 feet" away, police said. There was no exit wound.
"Also located in the bathroom were signs of drug and alcohol use," the detective wrote.
Several hours after Bell's body was discovered, Black notified authorities he planned to turn himself in.
According to Cowboy State Daily, Black's father told police he found his son in an abandoned trailer on the father's property and urged him to "do what is right." The father also turned over a SAR 9 mm handgun whose serial number matched the case found in the motel room, police said.
The judge reportedly ordered Black and the state to file status reports with the court by Oct. 30 and permitted Black to withdraw his guilty plea. Unless a different resolution can be reached, Black is scheduled to begin his jury trial on the second-degree murder charge Jan. 25, 2027.