Crownpoint Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Assault Charges

ALBUQUERQUE – Shiloh Y. McLemore, 36, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Crownpoint, N.M., pleaded guilty this morning in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to assault charges.

McLemore was arrested on April 15, 2015, on a criminal complaint charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm in Indian Country.  The complaint alleged that on April 8, 2015, law enforcement officers were called to the campus of the Navajo Technical University (NTU), where McLemore had allegedly assaulted and battered a woman and had then barricaded himself inside an apartment on the NTU campus.  The complaint further alleged that when approached by a second victim, a Navajo man, McLemore took out a hand gun, loaded a full magazine of bullets into the handgun and chambered a bullet while threatening the victim to get away from him.

McLemore was subsequently indicted on May 12, 2015, and charged with assault of a male victim with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm, assault of a female victim with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm, and using and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. The crimes charged took place on April 8, 2015, in McKinley County, N.M.

During today’s proceedings, McLemore pled guilty to two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.   In entering the guilty plea, McLemore admitted that on April 8, 2015, in Indian Country in McKinley County, he assaulted a male victim with a firearm with intent to do bodily harm.  He also admitted assaulting a female victim with a shod foot with intent to do bodily harm.

This case was investigated by the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Novaline Wilson.

The case was brought pursuant to 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 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.