Mandaree, ND Man sentenced to 40 years in Federal Prison for Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child

BISMARCK – United States Attorney Drew H. Wrigley announced that on February 21, 2020, United States District Judge Daniel L. Hovland sentenced Kelly Shayne Mason, age 38, Mandaree, ND, for multiple counts of sexual abuse of children under the age of 12. On November 1, 2019, Mason pled guilty to three counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse of a Child. Judge Hovland sentenced Mason to serve 40 years in prison for all three counts to run concurrently, followed by lifetime of supervised release. Mason was also ordered to pay $ 300 special assessment to the Crime Victims’ Fund.

"The defendant heartlessly stole the security and innocence from three children’s lives," said United States Attorney Drew H. Wrigley, "and the investigative team has brought the defendant to his reckoning. The sexual exploitation of these children is over, and justice has been served."

In 2017, one of three child victims in this case told police that Mason had sexually abused her on Spirit Lake Reservation approximately a decade earlier. The report launched a full investigation, during which investigators learned that Mason had victimized three children. Each of the three child victims were then interviewed by the Northern Plains Children’s Advocacy Center in Minot, ND. All three victim girls were under the age of 12 at the time that Mason sexually abused them. On multiple days between September 2006 and August 2010, Mason sexually abused the girls while inside their Fort Totten, ND home.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Three Affiliated Tribes Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jake Rodenbiker.