Navajo Man from San Juan County Pleads Guilty to Federal Assault and Firearms Charges

Plea Agreement Recommends Imposition of Six Year Prison Sentence

ALBUQUERQUE – Neddanyl Sims, 27, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Nenahnezad, N.M., pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to assault and firearms charges.  Sims entered the plea under a plea agreement that recommends he be sentenced to six years of imprisonment followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

Sims was arrested on Sept. 1, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence on Aug. 16, 2016.  According to the complaint, Sims shot at an occupied vehicle and injured one of the three occupants, following an argument over money.

Sims was indicted on Nov. 15, 2016, and was charged with assaulting two victims with a rifle with the intention of causing them bodily harm.  It also charged Sims with discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.  According to the indictment, Sims committed the offenses on Aug. 16, 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in San Juan County, N.M.

During yesterday’s proceedings, Sims pled guilty to Count 1 of the indictment charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon and to a felony information charging him with possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.  In entering the guilty plea, Sims admitted that on Aug. 16, 2016, he fired four rounds at the victim’s vehicle intending to do bodily harm following an argument over money Sims owed to the victim.  Sims acknowledged that several shots hit the victim’s vehicle, one of which struck the victim’s arm.

Sims was arrested on tribal charges on Aug. 16, 2016, and remained in tribal custody until he was transferred into federal custody on Sept. 1, 2016.  He has been in federal custody since that time and will remain detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

This case was investigated by the Farmington office of the FBI and the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall is prosecuting the case.