Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced for Federal Assault Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Matthew Joel Torres, 27, an enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., was sentenced this afternoon in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to 35 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for his assault conviction.

Torres was arrested on April 18, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with assaulting a Mescalero Apache man by stabbing him twice in the stomach. Torres committed the assault on June 13, 2015, on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in Otero County, N.M.

Torres pled guilty on Aug. 24, 2016, to a felony information charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon. In entering the guilty plea, Torres admitted that on June 13, 2015, he assaulted the victim by stabbing him in the abdomen twice with a knife with the intention of causing the victim bodily harm.

This case was investigated by the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.