BILLINGS – A man who stabbed and killed the driver of a pickup during a carjacking on Billings’ South Side admitted to charges today, Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith said.
Brian Dale Contreraz, 31, pleaded guilty to a carjacking that resulted in death. Contreraz faces up to life in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment. U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided and will determine a sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for Jan. 7, 2027. Contreraz remained in custody pending further proceedings.
The government alleged in court documents that Contreraz, along with Violet Jean Littlelight, 23, and Shyanna Jo Whitewolf, 21, met up with Keith Breckenridge, 51, at South Park in Billings to rob him and steal his pickup truck. Littlelight was sentenced earlier this summer to 24 years in prison for her role in the attack; Whitewolf was sentenced to 20 years.
The incident happened on May 16, 2025. Littlelight was spending time with Whitewolf and Contreraz in Billings and had been texting that evening with Breckenridge asking if he would come pick her up. When Littlelight told Whitewolf and Contreraz that she’d asked Breckenridge for a ride, the three made plans to steal his truck and take it to a drug dealer they knew in Hardin to exchange for drugs or money. Littlelight told Breckenridge to meet her at South Park; Whitewolf and Contreraz came along under the pretense of needing a ride. When Breckinridge arrived and saw the two additional people, he grew suspicious and kept the doors locked, asking to know who Whitewolf and Contreraz were. Littlelight vouched for them and told Breckenridge they just wanted a ride. With Littlelight’s assurances, Breckenridge opened the doors and the three climbed into his pickup. Contreraz told Breckenridge to drive to the alleyway behind Adams Street on Billings’s South Side while Whitewolf chatted with Breckenridge to keep him calm. Once there, Breckenridge stopped the truck and Contreraz leaned over and stabbed him approximately 20 times in the face, neck and chest. Littlelight, Whitewolf, and Contreraz then pulled Breckenridge from the truck and drove away. Breckenridge died in the alley from the stab wounds.
The three drove the pickup to a house in Hardin where they changed their blood-stained clothes and placed them in the truck. From there they drove to a house on the Crow Reservation, where Littlelight and Contreraz decided they would clean the interior of the pickup and burn their bloody clothes along with other evidence from the truck. As they were cleaning the pickup, BIA officers pulled up. Littlelight and Contreraz ran off; Whitewolf stayed. By the end of the month, law enforcement had all three in custody. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Colin Rubich and Zeno Baucus are prosecuting the case. The Billings Police Department conducted the investigation. The FBI adopted the case to help expedite laboratory testing and for federal prosecution purposes.