North Dakota case delayed because of murder-for-hire trial

BISMARCK, N.D. — The federal trial for a woman accused of bilking investors in a North Dakota oil patch trucking firm has been delayed so she can testify in the ongoing murder-for-hire trial of her ex-husband.

Sarah Creveling was scheduled to go on trial Feb. 23 in Bismarck on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. But it’s not clear when she’ll be called as a witness in the trial of James Henrikson, her one-time husband and business partner. That trial, held in Richland, began last week and could last another two months.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, in an order released Wednesday, rescheduled Creveling’s trial for May 10.

Henrikson was indicted in 2014 on murder-for-hire charges in the deaths of Doug Carlile and Kristopher “K.C.” Clarke, two former associates in North Dakota. Henrikson was first arrested at his home in Watford City, N.D., on federal illegal weapons charges, which were dropped when the complaint was filed in Washington state, where Carlile lived.

Defense attorney Ryan Sandberg’s motion to delay Creveling’s trial accuses Henrikson of also trying to kill Creveling.

Creveling and Henrikson previously were named in a civil lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors in their trucking company, Blackstone LLC. Authorities say the scheme tricked investors into thinking the trucks were destroyed or damaged to get them to sign a release for sale of the scrap. That allowed what appeared to be a lawful transfer of the trucks to another company.

The criminal case lists Creveling and an unnamed co-conspirator as defendants.