Navajo Man Sentenced to 17 Years for Voluntary Manslaughter

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, announced today that Brian Tony was sentenced to 17 years and 6 months in prison. A federal jury convicted Tony, 51, of Gallup, and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, of voluntary manslaughter on March 10, 2022.

According to court records, on May 8, 2016, Tony, accompanied by his brother and his girlfriend, drove to a residence in Gallup and picked up the victim and the victim’s friend.  While at the residence, Tony retrieved a hammer and placed it in his vehicle. Tony drove them to a location called “Superman Canyon,” where Tony and the victim got out of the vehicle and the victim was killed out of sight of the other passengers. An autopsy revealed that the victim had been stabbed repeatedly in the head and neck and had blunt-force trauma wounds on his head. 

This case was investigated by the Gallup Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety. Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph M. Spindle and Nicholas J. Marshall are prosecuting the case.

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