Fort Peck man sentenced to 15 years for killing man who beat his sister

A federal judge sentenced a Wolf Point man Wednesday to nearly 16 years in prison for a homicide that had the Fort Peck Indian Reservation on lockdown.

Ethan Louis Murphy fatally shot a man last year, and wounded a second man, retaliating against a vicious assault on his sister. The 27-year-old eluded law enforcement for two days before turning himself into custody.

“Unfortunately,” wrote Murphy’s attorney, Chad Wright, in court documents filed leading up to client’s sentencing, “in his mind, his choices were narrowed to the point he felt his only recourse was to confront the man who brutally beat his sister with a skateboard. Violence was certain to follow when he brought a gun to that confrontation. Ethan cannot take back what he did, but he has done everything he can do to own up to his conduct.”

On Sept. 28, 2025, court documents said, Murphy picked up his sister on the side of a road in Wolf Point. She was screaming for help. Pictures later posted on social media and filed in federal court showed her bloodied face, her eyes blackened and swollen shut. The woman said her boyfriend, later identified as Ira Follet Jr., had beaten her with a skateboard.

Later that same night, Murphy found Follet and two other men in the parking lot of the Albertsons in Wolf Point. Murphy was carrying a loaded handgun previously reported stolen. Surveillance footage showed Murphy approaching the three. Follet drew a machete, and Murphy shot him in the head, killing Follet. He was 28 years old and a father of three. Murphy then shot and wounded a second man standing next to Follet before leaving the area.

Police in Wolf Point responded to reports of the shooting. First responders pronounced Follet dead at the scene. A manhunt ensued. Members of the FBI and Fort Peck Tribes Criminal Investigations soon joined in the investigation, collecting bullet casings at the scene. When investigators identified Murphy as the suspect, a search began that looped in the Roosevelt County Sheriff's Office, Wolf Point Fire Department, Indian Health Service staff, U.S. Border Patrol and Montana Highway Patrol.

The shooting derailed services for the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes at Fort Peck over the next two days, the Gazette previously reported, with the tribal government granting leave to tribal employees, Wolf Point School District announcing that students would stay home for the day and Northeast Montana Health Services canceling appointments at its hospitals in Wolf Point and Poplar.

On Sept. 30, 2025, Murphy called enforcement and surrendered to police in Wolf Point. When they apprehended him, he was carrying the handgun and ammunition that investigators matched to the shooting.

Federal charges were filed against Murphy in December 2025. In February of this year, Murphy pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of second-degree murder and one count of using a firearm in a crime of violence. With the second-degree murder charge, Murphy was admitting to killing someone deliberately and maliciously, but not premeditatively. With his guilty plea, Murphy faced mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison.

In memoranda filed prior to Murphy’s sentencing Wednesday, his defense and prosecutors acknowledged that Murphy and his siblings lived a life filled with trauma, with Murphy’s attorney arguing that Murphy was forced to assume a role as a protector for his sister.

“While Murphy’s actions in this case can only be described as cold-blooded and heinous,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Kalah A. Paisley in the prosecution’s sentencing recommendation, “it stemmed from a woefully misguided attempt to protect his sister, a sister that experienced a traumatic childhood alongside the defendant.”

While acknowledging the trauma Murphy endured as a child, Paisley was amazed that Follet was Murphy’s first homicide victim, court documents said, as Murphy had a history of criminal behavior involving weapons including a machete, a baseball bat and a sawed-off shotgun.

“The government genuinely hopes that Murphy will break free from that lifestyle,” Paisley wrote, “and change his criminal thinking. As Murphy notes in his letter of acceptance of responsibility — he is still young enough to make a difference. And while he may never be able to make up for what he has done, he can pay respect to the hurt he caused by becoming a healthy and productive member of his community.”

U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris sentenced Murphy to 188 months in prison. Following his release from custody, Murphy will remain under federal supervision for another five years.

Last month, an elderly Poplar man was sentenced for killing three people. Michael Ackerman pleaded guilty in federal court to counts that mirrored those against Murphy. Ackerman, 74, was using meth and became convinced that three others inside the house were “setting him up.” He shot his wife in the head and killed his stepson and his stepson's girlfriend while they slept. The Poplar shooting occurred less than a month before the Wolf Point homicide.