Navajo Man from Gallup Sentenced to Federal Prison for Assault Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Jonathan Dan Clyde, 36, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Gallup, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his assault conviction.

Clyde was arrested in Feb. 2017, on a criminal complaint charging him with assault resulting in serious bodily injury on Jan. 21, 2017, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County, N.M. According to the complaint, Clyde assaulted a Navajo woman by pushing her to the floor, kicking and punching her in the face, slamming her face into the floor, choking her, and kicking her left arm. The victim suffered serious injuries that required her to be transferred to the hospital in a medevac airplane.

On March 3, 2017, Clyde pled guilty to an information charging him with assault resulting in serious bodily injury. In entering the guilty plea, Clyde admitted that on Jan. 21, 2017, he assaulted the victim by striking and beating her face and body after an argument. Clyde further admitted that the assault resulted in serious bodily injury.

This case was investigated by the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety and was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lucy B. Solimon. The case was brought 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.