Kyle man sentenced to eight years for assaults involving cigarette, bat and metal chair

KYLE, S.D. – A Kyle man has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for two separate assaults that left a woman with serious injuries.

Channing Little Whiteman, 39, was indicted on six counts of assault by a federal grand jury in March 2025. He later pleaded guilty to two counts involving attacks on different days.

According to court records, the first assault happened on May 13, 2024. Little Whiteman and his girlfriend had been drinking when he accused her of cheating. Officers were dispatched to their home, where Little Whiteman had assaulted the victim with a bat and a lit cigarette. She suffered a fractured leg and a burn on her thigh.

The second assault occurred on Nov. 5, 2024, under similar circumstances. After another argument involving accusations of infidelity, Little Whiteman struck the victim in the face with a metal chair. She sustained fractures to her orbital bone and maxillary sinus, a deep laceration under her eye, and severe swelling that temporarily prevented her from seeing. At the time, she was seven months pregnant.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case under the Major Crimes Act, which requires certain violent offenses in Indian Country to be handled in federal court.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety investigated the case.