Los Lunas Man Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Isleta Pueblo Woman

ALBUQUERQUE – Brandon J. Todd, 36, of Los Lunas, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 37 months in prison for his conviction for assaulting an intimate partner by strangulation or suffocation.  Todd will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence. 

The Isleta Pueblo Tribal Police Department arrested Todd on Aug. 1, 2017, and charged him in a criminal complaint with assaulting an intimate partner by strangulation and domestic assault by a habitual offender.  According to the complaint, Todd assaulted the victim, an Isleta Pueblo woman, on July 26, 2017, in the Isleta Pueblo within Bernalillo County, N.M., by throwing items at her head and strangling her with his arms.  The victim suffered bruising to her eyelids, red marks and swelling on her left temple, and a bump on her head. 

Todd was indicted on Sept. 21, 2017, and was charged with assaulting an intimate partner by strangulation or suffocation.  According to the indictment, Todd committed the crime on July 25, 2017, on the Isleta Pueblo in Bernalillo County.

On Jan. 18, 2018, Todd pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that on July 25, 2017, he strangled the victim by wrapping his legs around her legs, putting his arms around her neck, and applying pressure and squeezing her neck.  Todd further admitted that he caused the victim to suffer pain, and impeded her normal breathing and blood circulation.

This case was investigated by the Isleta Pueblo Tribal Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Raquel Ruiz-Velez 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.  The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women, and is another step in the Justice Department's on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.