AMERICAN OFFICER KILLED PINAY GF

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-A former South Dakota police chief was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday in the 2009 death of his pregnant fiancee.

The sentence against Russell Bertram, the onetime police chief of Harrisburg, came almost two months after a jury in Burke found him guilty of first-degree murder.

Bertram, 64, was accused of fatally shooting 26-yearold Leonila Stickney out of jealousy and to collect more than $900,000 in insurance benefits.

Defense attorneys argued it was an accidental shooting.

At the time of the incident, Bertram told authorities that he was putting his shotgun into his truck after a hunting trip in Gregory County when the weapon fired accidentally, striking Stickney in the abdomen.

County authorities ruled the death an accident after a brief investigation.

Authorities, however, revisited the case after Stickney’s estranged husband, David Stickney, received a letter from a life insurance company that was processing a claim from Bertram.

David Stickney contacted the South Dakota attorney general’s office after getting the letter, setting in motion an investigation that led to a murder charge against the police chief in September 2015.

Court records show that a $750,000 life insurance policy had been taken out on Stickney months before her death, followed by a smaller policy with a $150,000 accidental death benefit, with Bertram as the beneficiary.

But Bertram’s defense team argued during the trial that the insurance policy was Leonila Stickney’s idea to provide for her family in the Philippines if anything happened to her.