Cornpeach Pleads Guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter and Assault on a Federal Officer

 Defendant Stabbed Victim to Death on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and Assaulted Deputies at the Davis County Jail.

SALT LAKE CITY – Deland Cornpeach, 20, of the Shoshone-Bannock Indian Tribe, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of assault on a federal officer in federal court on February 1, 2021.  As a part of the plea agreement, Cornpeach has agreed to serve 84 months in federal prison. 

In the plea agreement, Cornpeach admitted to stabbing the victim, E.P., an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe, to death with a knife on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation on June 20, 2017.  The assault on a federal officer charge stems from an incident at the Davis County Jail, where Cornpeach was detained on the federal manslaughter case.  While at the jail, Cornpeach assaulted and inflicted injury upon two Davis County Sheriff’s Deputies who where engaged in the performance of their official duties on behalf of the federal government.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case.  Special Agents of the FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.