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Press Release

Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced to 79 Months in Prison for Aggravated Sexual Abuse Conviction

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE – Earlier today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., Terrence Charles Blake, 29, a member and resident of the Mescalero Apache Nation, was sentenced to 79 months in prison for his aggravated sexual abuse conviction. Blake will serve a five-year term of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence, and will be required to register as a sex offender. Blake’s sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales and DuWayne W. Honahni, Sr., Special Agent in Charge of District IV of BIA’s Office of Justice Services.

Blake was arrested on August 10, 2011, based on a criminal complaint alleging that he raped a Mescalero Apache woman on May 13, 2011, on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. He has been in federal custody since his arrest. On Nov. 16, 2011, Blake was indicted and charged with aggravated sexual abuse.

According to court records, on May 13, 2011, Blake drove the victim to a secluded field behind the Pena Housing Area on the Mescalero Reservation and sexually assaulted her. Blake pled guilty to the indictment on May 7, 2012, and admitted meeting the victim at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino in Ruidoso, N.M., on May 13, 2011. Blake admitted leaving the resort with the victim and later driving her to the secluded field, where he sexually assaulted her against her will and by use of force.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, Mescalero Agency, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Càrdenas Jarvis and Richard C. Williams of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.

Updated January 26, 2015