Documents: 20-Year-Old Man Beaten And Burned

SIOUX FALLS, SD - They beat him with rocks and then tried to burn his body.

Court documents filed Monday afternoon lay out the details that led up to the death of 20-year-old Geu Ayouel Friday morning. 

Twenty one-year-old Jerome Douglas Ewing and 17-year-old Dwight Dauson Ree are facing murder and manslaughter charges for killing Ayouel and leaving his body in an alley in the 300 block of South Duluth Avenue.

The crime happened in the Pettigrew Heights neighborhood in central Sioux Falls, an area that has seen its share of crime. In fact, court papers say a woman who lives nearby heard arguing and even saw Ayouel's body by a small fire shortly after he was killed and didn't think anything of it because drunk people commonly walk up and down that alley.

Court documents filed Monday say that Ayouel, Ewing and Ree were all drinking Thursday night in a house on South Duluth Avenue when they left to get cigarettes around 1:30 a.m. early Friday.

Court papers say earlier in the night, Ayouel had said he was looking to fight, and when the three men were walking down the alley, Ree was tired of Ayouel "running his mouth" and told Ewing to "watch this."  Ree then punched the victim in the face. The two men then "stomped" on Ayouel with their hands and feet about 30 times. At one point, both men even picked up rocks and started hitting him.

When they saw Ayouel was not breathing, Ree told police he "panicked" and took his shirt off and tried to burn the body to "cover up the evidence."  They also ran down the alley and threw the rocks in the neighborhood because they knew they had handprints on them.

Police found Ewing in Sioux Falls and talked with him at the Law Enforcement Center. But authorities found Ree in Rochester Minnesota where authorities in Mower County spotted his vehicle and took him into custody.