Press Release
Non-Indian Man Sentenced to Ten Years for Conviction On Assault and Firearms Charges Arising Out of Shooting at Isleta Pueblo Residence
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE – Federico Lujan, 27, of Serafina, N.M., was sentenced this morning to ten years and two days in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release for his conviction on assault and firearms charges. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez, Acting Special Agent in Charge William McClure, of District IV of BIA’s Office of Justice Services, and Chief Kevin Mariano of the Isleta Pueblo Tribal Police Department.
Lujan, a non-Indian man, was arrested on July 5, 2012, on a criminal complaint alleging aggravated assault charges arising out of the discharging of a rifle while threatening and menacing two Isleta Pueblo women and ten children in an Isleta Pueblo residence. Lujan subsequently was indicted and charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.
On Feb. 21, 2014, a federal jury returned a verdict finding Lujan guilty on all three counts of the indictment after a four-day trial. The trial evidence established that on the morning of July 5, 2012, Lujan drove to the victims’ residence armed with a .22 caliber rifle loaded with a high-capacity magazine carrying almost 50 rounds of ammunition. After Lujan got out of his vehicle with the loaded rifle, one of the two adult victims peered out the window to see a stranger with a rifle standing in her yard. The adult victim heard shots fired as she ran to get the children who were in the residence to safety.
While one adult victim stayed in the home to protect the ten children who were in the home, the other adult victim went outside to try to defuse the situation. While speaking to Lujan, the victim learned that Lujan was shooting at the residence because someone had taken his baseball cap from him the night before and he believed the cap was inside the residence. When the victim denied knowing about the baseball cap, Lujan pointed the rifle at her, threatened to kill her, and fired his rifle again but did not hit the victim. As Lujan drove away, the victim got the license plate number for Lujan’s vehicle. Lujan was arrested shortly thereafter by tribal police officers who were responding to a call from the victims. Following the arrest, the officers found a rifle in Lujan’s vehicle.
This case was investigated by the Southern Pueblos Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and the Isleta Pueblo Tribal Police Department, with assistance from the Albuquerque office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI’s crime lab in Quantico, Va., and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Holland S. Kastrin and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark T. Baker.
Updated January 26, 2015
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