Jicarilla Apache Man Pleads Guilty to Brutal Partner Assault

Rode Lyle Enjady, 38, a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation from Dulce, N.M., admitted in federal court today to assaulting his intimate partner in a violent 2016 attack that left her with stab wounds, lost teeth, and widespread bruising across her body. The brutal assault occurred over a six-day stretch between Feb. 11 and Feb. 17, 2016, on tribal land in Rio Arriba County.

Enjady entered a guilty plea to Count 3 of a federal indictment: assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Originally facing multiple charges—including assault with a knife, a metal weight, and strangulation—he admitted to repeatedly beating the victim, a Jicarilla Apache woman, causing severe trauma to her face, head, abdomen, back, pubic region, and legs. She also suffered stab wounds to her legs and lost a tooth during the attack.

The indictment, returned in October 2016, detailed a campaign of terror carried out in the confines of their home on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. Federal authorities say the repeated assaults were part of a broader pattern of domestic control and violence. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Enjady will serve 36 months in federal prison, followed by a term of court-determined supervised release.

The case was investigated by the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department, a rare example of tribal law enforcement initiating a federal prosecution. It’s now being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall, underscoring the growing collaboration between tribal and federal justice systems in violent crime cases.

This prosecution emerged from the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in New Mexico, a Justice Department initiative backed by the Office on Violence Against Women. Administered through a grant by the Pueblo of Laguna, the program trains tribal prosecutors in federal law to boost prosecutions of violent crimes against Native American women.

The Tribal SAUSA effort stems from years of tribal consultations demanding stronger responses to domestic violence. Enjady’s guilty plea marks a concrete win in that fight—one that sends a message: assaults behind closed doors on tribal lands won’t vanish into silence. A sentencing hearing is pending.

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