Convicted Custer murderer dies

The last man to be convicted for murder in Custer County has died, it was announced early last week.
Samuel Boston, 60, died July 29 in a Sioux Falls Hospital. The cause of death was not listed.
Boston was sentenced at the Custer County Courthouse to life in prison in 2001 for the 2000 murder of Richard Gitter at Valley Hi Apartments in Custer.
Gitter was found naked and unresponsive in Boston’s bathtub in March of 2000. Boston had placed the call to 911 and claimed that Gitter was inebriated and had passed out on Boston’s couch before he placed him in the tub.
At trial, prosecutors contended Boston had strangled Gitter to death after he rebuffed sexual advances from Boston. The defense argued Gitter died from heart failure brought on by the synergistic effects of the cominbation of the alcohol and Paxil found in his system during his autopsy.
A jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Boston guilty. He was sentenced by Seventh Judicial Circuit Courth judge Janine Kern to a life sentence on the second degree murder conviction.
Boston was serving his sentence at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls.