Ferguson Pierce Gets 17.5 Years for Navajo Woman’s Sexual Assault

Ferguson Pierce, 52, a Navajo Nation member from Farmington, N.M., was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison for the brutal sexual assault of a Navajo woman on the reservation in San Juan County. The sentence, handed down in Santa Fe federal court, marks the end of a years-long case rooted in violence and jurisdictional complexity. Pierce will serve seventeen and a half years behind bars, followed by a decade of supervised release, and must register as a sex offender upon release.

The attack occurred on July 6, 2015, when Pierce forced his way into the victim’s home and committed aggravated sexual abuse. The crime, prosecuted under federal law due to its occurrence on tribal land, underscores the ongoing crisis of violence against Native American women. Pierce was arrested in November 2015 after a criminal complaint was filed; he was later indicted on August 25, 2015, on a single count of aggravated sexual abuse.

On June 6, 2016, Pierce pleaded guilty to a felony information, admitting he entered the victim’s residence without permission and carried out the assault. His guilty plea spared the victim from testifying at trial but did little to soften the gravity of the crime. Federal prosecutors emphasized the premeditated nature of the break-in and the lasting trauma inflicted on the survivor.

The investigation was led by the FBI’s Farmington office and the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety’s Shiprock unit. Collaboration between federal and tribal law enforcement agencies proved critical in building the case, reflecting a broader push to address violent crime in Indian Country where jurisdictional gaps have long hindered justice.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Adams prosecuted the case under the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project, a Justice Department initiative funded by the Office on Violence Against Women and administered through the Pueblo of Laguna. The program trains tribal prosecutors in federal law to strengthen prosecutions of violent crimes against Native women—cases that too often go unprosecuted.

U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez, FBI Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade, and Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety Director Jesse Delmar all confirmed the sentencing outcome, calling it a measure of justice in a system still grappling with systemic failures. For now, Pierce’s conviction stands as a rare but hard-won victory in the fight to protect vulnerable communities from sexual violence.