A Mescalero Apache man has pleaded guilty to a federal assault charge in connection with a vicious attack on a woman on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Otero County, New Mexico.
Clay Samson Geronimo, 26, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation, entered his guilty plea on October 10, 2014, without the benefit of a plea agreement.
Geronimo was arrested on February 21, 2014, on a criminal complaint alleging that he assaulted a Mescalero Apache woman on January 12, 2014, causing her to suffer serious bodily injuries.
Court filings reflect that on January 12, 2014, Geronimo assaulted the victim by striking her in the face with his fists. As a result of the assault, the victim sustained a fractured eye socket and fractured nasal bones, which required surgical treatment.
Geronimo was arrested on tribal charges on January 12, 2014, and entered a no contest plea in Mescalero Tribal Court. He has been in federal custody since his arrest on February 21, 2014, and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
At sentencing, Geronimo faces a statutory maximum sentence of ten years in federal prison. The case was investigated by the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.
The case was brought pursuant to the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico, which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna.
The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure, and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court, or both.
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Key Facts
- State: New Mexico
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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