Whitecone Man Sentenced to 29.5 Years’ Prison for Second Degree Murder

     PHOENIX – This week, Bryan Joshua Tewanema, 25, of Whitecone, Ariz., was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to 355 months of imprisonment.  Tewanema had previously pleaded guilty to second degree murder and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

     During the evening of September 13, 2017, Tewanema entered a residence where the victim was staying, forced the victim outside, and then shot the victim with a rifle.  The victim died as a result.  Both Tewanema and the victim were members of the Navajo Nation, and the offense occurred in Whitecone, on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation.

     The investigation was conducted by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with the Navajo Nation Departments of Public Safety and Criminal Investigations.  The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Voit, District of Arizona, Phoenix