RAPID CITY, S.D. – The last suspect in a 2015 murder-for-hire case is one step closer to his trial date of September 18.
Richard Hirth, 42, is accused of being hired by Jonathan Klinetobe to fatally stab Klinetobe’s ex-girlfriend, Jessica Rehfeld.
Hirth was back in Seventh Circuit Court Monday afternoon and is now scheduled for another status hearing on September 12, only six days before his trial is set to begin.
As of Monday, the only pending motion is for a change of venue, which will be resolved at the time of the trial.
Jessica Anne Rehfeld, 22, was reporting missing on May 22, 2015. The Rapid City Police Department initially send out a press release stating that Rehfeld was missing and possibly endangered. She was last seen in the company of two unknown men in the area of 3408 Hemlock Street.
A day later, the RCPD sent out another release, stating new information indicated Rehfeld was not in immediate harm. They believed she was still in Rapid City.
On May 13, 2016, a witness came forward to the Newscastle, Wyoming Police Department, claiming to know where the body was buried. Newscastle Police then notified the RCPD. Detectives of the RCPD and Investigators with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office were led by the witness to a location south of Rockerville. Two grave sites were found with Rehfeld buried in one of the sites.
An investigation led law enforcement to focus on three men, Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, 26-year-old Jonathon Klinetobe, of Sturgis, 24-year-old David Schneider and 35-year-old Richard Hirth, both of Rapid City.
Court records show Klinetobe paid Richard Hirth and David Schneider $80,000 to kill Rehfeld, with Hirth stabbing her five times as she rode with the two men in Schneider’s car.
Klinetobe joined Hirth and Schneider in burying the body in a shallow grave in the Black Hills, but never paid the promised price. A few weeks later, he hired Michael Frye and Garland Brown to rebury the body in a deeper grave.
Klinetobe was sentenced to life without parole for orchestrating the murder-for-hire of his ex-girlfriend.
Frye and Brown pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and were given five years each.
Schneider pleaded guilty to the same accessory charge as Klinetobe and was given 75 years in March 2020, but with the chance for parole after 35 years.
