Tse-Yah-Toh, N.M., Man Sentenced to Eighteen Years in Prison for Federal Child Sex Abuse Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE –Kenneth Mike Etsitty, 58, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Tse-Yah-Toh, N.M., was sentenced this morning to 18 years in prison followed by ten years of supervised release for his child sex abuse conviction. Etsitty will be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence.

Etsitty was charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 in a criminal complaint filed on May 14, 2012. He was arrested the following day, and has been in federal custody since that time. On Oct. 17, 2012, Etsitty pled guilty to an information charging him with three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

According to court records, law enforcement authorities initiated a criminal investigation into Etsitty in Feb. 21, 2012, after a nine-year-old Navajo child reported being sexually assaulted by Etsitty on more than ten occasions. During a subsequent voluntary interview, Etsitty admitted sexually assaulting the child victim on approximately ten occasions.

In entering his guilty plea, Etsitty admitted that he forced the child victim to engage in sexual acts on multiple occasions from Jan. 2007, when the child was four-years-old, through Nov. 2011, when child was nine-years old. Etsitty admitted that each of the sexual attacks occurred in the same way, by touching the child victim’s genitals. The offenses occurred in Indian Country.

The case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI and the Crownpoint Division of the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark T. Baker.