Mom believes Watonga stabbing victim was sexually assaulted

Erma Daukei, 30, said Tuesday that when the body of her daughter, Rosalin Reynolds, was found in a field behind the apartment building “her gown was pulled up and her panties were on one leg.”

The mother's cousin, James “Icey” Daukei Jr., 20, of Watonga, is charged in Blaine County with first-degree murder. A judge denied bail. Authorities said James Daukei confessed to the killing, but investigators have not said what led to the March 23 attack or if there was a sexual assault.

James Daukei is accused of stabbing the second-grader multiple times with a knife, which Erma Daukei says was her own 10-inch kitchen knife.

Erma Daukei said she and her husband, Ralph Reynolds, 32, had been arguing the day before their daughter was killed, and she had gone to a neighboring apartment to cool off. She said she checked on her sleeping children during the night and saw her husband on a recliner and James Daukei on the couch.

The mother said James Daukei became intoxicated the day before at the family's home at Grand Prairie Apartments. “I asked his friends to take him home — he was hiding from his dad.”

Instead, Erma Daukei said, his friends gave him more to drink to get him to pass out and then left him on her couch.

James Daukei posted a message March 18 on his Facebook page stating he was “out of rehab and ready to start my new life,” with the backing of family members.

Daukei said she had been fighting with Rosalin's father most of the day and evening before going to a friend's residence in the same apartment complex.

She said she checked on the couple's three children twice that night, and they were sleeping. “The last time I checked on them was sometime after 2 a.m.” At 4 a.m., Daukei said, she told her friend she was ready to go home.