Non-Native Man from Dulce, N.M., Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Native American Woman

ALBUQUERQUE – Deandre Lamont Brown, 29, a non-Native man who resides in Dulce, N.M., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to an assault of an intimate partner charge. 

Brown was arrested on April 17, 2015, on an indictment charging him with assaulting an Indian woman and intimate partner by strangling or suffocating on Oct. 3, 2014, in Indian Country in Rio Arriba County, N.M.

During today’s proceedings, Brown pled guilty to the indictment and admitted to assaulting the victim, a Native American woman who was his intimate partner, by strangling and suffocating her.  Under the terms of his plea agreement, Brown will be sentenced within the range of 12 to 36 months in federal prison.  A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Novaline D. Wilson.

This case was brought as part of 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 American 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.