Torreon Man Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Assault

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 Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, announced today that Monty Joe Montoya, 43, of Torreon, and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, was sentenced to four years in prison. Montoya pled guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury on March 31, 2023.

According to court documents, on March 15, 2022, Montoya hit his girlfriend, Jane Doe, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, in the head and face multiple times with a closed fist and a .45 caliber pistol. When Jane Doe tried to get away, Montoya pointed the pistol at her and fired, hitting her in the left arm and breaking the bone. Jane Doe's face was extremely bruised and swollen, and she required surgery to repair the bone broken by the gunshot. After he shot Jane Doe, Montoya took the pistol to his mother’s house to hide it in an effort to conceal what he had done.

Upon his release from prison, Montoya will be subject to three years of supervised release.

The FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the Navajo Nation Police Department and the Navajo Department of Criminal Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Kimberly Bell is prosecuting the case.

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