Ramah Navajo Man Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Voluntary Manslaughter Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Dhanzasikam R. Toledo, 21, an enrolled member of the Ramah Navajo Chapter of the Navajo Nation, was sentenced this morning to 72 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his voluntary manslaughter conviction.

Toledo was arrested on Nov. 21, 2011, on a criminal complaint alleging that he murdered his uncle, also a member of the Ramah Navajo Chapter, on Nov. 10, 2011, in Ramah, N.M., which is located on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Toledo was indicted on a second degree murder charge on Dec. 13, 2011.

On Sept. 26, 2012, a federal jury acquitted Toledo on the second degree murder charge but convicted him of the lesser included charge of voluntary manslaughter. According to the evidence presented at trial, Toledo stabbed the victim to death on Nov. 10, 2011, during an argument over a debt owed by Toledo to the victim that escalated to include personal verbal attacks about Toledo and his family. Toledo stabbed the victim after the victim started making racially derogatory slurs about Toledo, who is of Indian and African‐American descent.

The case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI and the Ramah Navajo Nation Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Niki Tapia‐Brito and Presiliano Torrez.