United States Attorney Brendan V.
Johnson announced that a McLaughlin man has been indicted by a federal grand
jury for assault with a dangerous weapon.
Roland Joseph Thundershield, a/k/a
Roland Joseph Antelope, age 39, was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 8,
2012. He appeared before United States Magistrate Judge William D. Gerdes on
May 24, 2012 and pled not guilty to the indictment. The maximum penalty upon
conviction is 10 years in custody, a $250,000 fine, or both; three years of
supervised release; and a $100 special assessment. Restitution may also be
ordered.
The charge relates to an allegation that
Thundershield assaulted a McLaughlin man with a box cutter in January 2011. The
charge is merely an accusation, and Thundershield is presumed innocent until
and unless proven guilty.
The investigation is being conducted by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Standing
Rock Agency. Assistant United States Attorney Mikal Hanson is prosecuting the
case. Thundershield was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals
Service. A trial date has not yet been set.
WASHINGTON – Michael Makalou, 40, a State Department employee, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride.
The indictment was returned yesterday in the Eastern District of Virginia.According to court documents, Makalou resided with his wife and children in Dakar, Senegal, and worked as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar.A publically filed affidavit alleges that on the morning of Aug. 13, 2011, an argument erupted between Makalou and his wife.According to the affidavit, Makalou then began to physically assault his wife, which included choking her, striking her head with closed fists and stomping on her back with his feet.As a result of the attack, Makalou’s wife suffered a concussion as well as lacerations to her gums, multiple contusions and bruising.
If convicted, Makalou faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
This case was investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State.Trial Attorney Sarah Chang of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebeca H. Bellows of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
An indictment is merely a charge and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that Oddie Tribble, 51, a former deputy sheriff with the Kershaw County, S.C., Sherriff’s Office, was sentenced to 63 month in prison and three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie for using excessive force on a man in his custody on Aug. 5, 2010.Tribble was also ordered to pay restitution of $5,109.25 to the victim.
According to evidence presented at trial, Tribble struck Charles Shelley, 38, a handcuffed arrestee, more than 25 times with a metal baton, lacerating his skin and fracturing his leg.The assault was captured by video cameras at the Kershaw County Detention Center. Eyewitnesses to the beating, including law enforcement officers, testified that they were shocked to see the unjustified attack by a police officer.A jury found Tribble guilty of violating Shelley’s rights on Feb. 3, 2011.
“The defendant was granted considerable power to enforce the law, but instead abused his authority when he beat a handcuffed man entrusted to his care,” stated Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This prosecution reflects the department’s commitment to rooting out official misconduct, and today’s sentence sends a message that such violent abuse will not be tolerated.”
“Oddie Tribble’s conviction and sentence demonstrate that we are a nation of laws, and that no man is above the law, most especially those of us that are responsible for enforcing the same.” said U.S Attorney Bill Nettles.
This case was investigated by the Columbia, S.C., Division of the FBI with assistance from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and was prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Beth Drake, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara McGregor, and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Christopher Lomax.
First Defendant to Be Convicted Under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that Sean Popejoy, 19, of Green Forest, Ark., pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of committing a federal hate crime and one count of conspiring to commit a federal hate crime.This is the first conviction for a violation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was enacted in October 2009.
Information presented during the plea hearing established that in the early morning hours of June 20, 2010, Popejoy admitted that he was part of a conspiracy to threaten and injure five Hispanic men who had pulled into a gas station parking lot.The co-conspirators pursued the victims in a truck.When the co-conspirators caught up to the victims, Popejoy leaned outside of the front passenger window and waived a tire wrench at the victims and continued to threaten and hurl racial epithets at the victims. The co-conspirator rammed into the victims' car, which caused the victims’ car to cross the opposite lane of traffic, go off the road, crash into a tree and ignite.As a result of the co-conspirators’ actions, the victims suffered bodily injury, including one victim who sustained life-threatening injuries.
“James Byrd, Jr. and Matthew Shepard were brutally murdered more than a decade ago, and today the first defendant is convicted for a hate crime under the critical new law enacted in their names,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “It is unacceptable that violent acts of hate committed because of someone’s race continue to occur in 2011, and the department will continue to use every available tool to identify and prosecute hate crimes whenever and wherever they occur.
“It is terrible and disturbing that violence motivated by hatred of another’s race continues to occur,” said Conner Eldridge, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas.“We are committed to prosecuting such crimes in the Western District of Arkansas.”
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Fayetteville Division in cooperation with the Arkansas State Police Department and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Edward Chung of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner for the Western District of Arkansas.
ALBUQUERQUE—On the evening of March 24, 2011, a federal jury in Albuquerque convicted 20-year-old Carl Ernesto Romero of second degree murder after a four-day trial. Romero, who resides in the Pueblo of Okay Owingeh, was found guilty of killing 26-year-old Naayaitch Friday, a member of the Arapaho Indian Tribe of Wyoming, within the boundaries of the San Ildelfonso Pueblo on April 11, 2009.
Romero was charged in a five-count indictment alleging offenses related to Mr. Friday’s murder. In addition to the murder charge (count one), the indictment charged Romero with four other offenses: use of a firearm in relation to the violent crime of murder (count two); assault with a dangerous weapon (count three); assault resulting in serious bodily injury (count four); and use of a firearm in relation to the violent crime of assault (count five). The jury deliberated less than two hours before returning a guilty verdict on all five offenses. Although the jury did not convict Romero of first degree murder as charged in the indictment, it returned a guilty verdict on the lesser included offense of second degree murder.
At sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled, Romero faces up to life imprisonment on his second-degree murder conviction to be followed by a prison term of not less than 25 years for using a firearm in relation to that murder. Romero also faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of his two assault convictions to be followed by a prison term of not less 10 years on his conviction for using a firearm in relation to the assaults.
The evidence at trial established that, Mr. Friday and a friend (the “friend”) met Romero and two of his cohorts for the first time on the night of April 10, 2009 at a Sonic drive-in restaurant in Espanola, New Mexico, after Romero parked his Chevrolet Cavalier in the parking space next to the space occupied by Mr. Friday and the friend. Thereafter, when the friend was confronted by an individual who brandished a firearm at him, Romero offered to let the friend use his shotgun to defend himself, and the friend observed that a shotgun in the Cavalier.
At approximately that night, Mr. Friday and the friend joined Romero and his two cohorts when they left the Sonic in the Cavalier to go to the Big Rock Casino located on the Santa Clara Pueblo. The group convened at the sports bar where they drank alcohol. They left the casino and later returned at around on April 11, 2011. The group was confronted by casino security officers in the parking lot and left the premises at approximately After driving around, Romero, Mr. Friday and the two other men dropped the friend off at a residence in the San Ildelfonso Pueblo.
Mr. Friday’s body was discovered in an arroyo on the San Ildelfonso Pueblo on the afternoon of April 11, 2009 by a motorist. An autopsy by the Office of the Medical Investigator established that Mr. Friday had been shot at close range in the chest and chin by a shotgun.
After sources assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in identifying Romero as the driver of the Cavalier and that Romero had access to a shotgun, special agents of the FBI executed a search warrant at Romero’s residence on April 16, 2009 and seized the shotgun that was used to kill Mr. Friday. While executing the search warrant, FBI agents interviewed Romero who admitted killing Mr. Friday.
During the interview, Romero admitted socializing with Mr. Friday and the friend on the night of April 10, 2009 and the early hours of April 11, 2009. He also admitted that, after dropping the friend off at a residence in San Ildelfonso, he had a verbal confrontation with Mr. Friday over drugs and money. According to Romero, Mr. Friday continued to “mouth off” after Romero pulled the Cavalier off in an arroyo on the San Ildelfonso Pueblo to examine the car’s tires. Romero responded by shooting Mr. Friday in the chest. Mr. Friday fell back from the impact of the shot, and cried and begged Romero not to shoot him again. Romero, however, returned to the Cavalier, loaded another shotgun shell into the shotgun, and shot Mr. Friday in the face and left him to die in the arroyo.
Romero was arrested on April 16, 2009 and has been in federal custody since that time.
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Office of Justice Services of the U.S. Department of Justice, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Roberto D. Ortega and Charles L. Barth.
YAKIMA, WA—Today, Michael C. Ormsby, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that Johnathon Frank, age 21, of Harrah, Washington, was sentenced for the crime of assault resulting in serious injury in conjunction with the assault and death of Daniel Simmons on July 19, 2009. On March 17, 2011, Johnathon Frank was sentenced to a term of 70 months' imprisonment with three years of supervision to follow when released from prison. The defendant has been in custody since his arrest on July 20, 2009.
Daniel Simmons was assaulted during a violent altercation on July 19, 2009 involving Johnathon Frank, Lance Frank, Daniel Simmons, and others that ultimately resulted in the death of Daniel Simmons. Johnathon Frank admitted pursuant to a plea agreement that after Daniel Simmons was struck with a bat by Lance Frank and fell to the ground and stopped moving, Johnathon Frank then kicked Daniel Simmons in the neck and head area of his body. During the altercation with Johnathon Frank and Lance Frank, Daniel Simmons sustained multiple blunt impacts, blunt force trauma to his head, and suffered a fractured skull. He later died from his injuries sustained during the altercation. Another defendant in the case, Lance Frank, was sentenced to 90 months' incarceration and three years' supervised release on January 27, 2011 following a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter. Defendant Johnathon Frank is an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation and Daniel Simmons was an enrolled member of the Quinault Indian Nation. The crime occurred within the external boundaries of the Yakama Nation.
Michael C. Ormsby, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said, "This case is a prime example of the investigatory partnership among the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Yakama Tribal Police Department, the Yakima County Sheriff's Office, and the United States Attorney's Office. Each of these partner agencies is committed to vigorously investigating violent crime occurring on the Yakama Nation Reservation and to bring offenders to justice."
This investigation was conducted by the Yakima Tribal Police Department, the Yakima County Sheriff's Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by James Goeke, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
BISMARCK, ND—United States Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on March 21, 2011, Frank Marshall, a/k/a Frankie Marshall, 21, of Fort Yates, North Dakota, was sentenced before United States District Court Judge Daniel L. Hovland on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. Marshall pleaded guilty to the charge on December 17, 2010.
Judge Hovland sentenced Marshall to two years and 11 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Marshall was ordered to pay restitution of $4,757.31 and a special assessment of $100 to the Crime Victim's Fund. On August 2, 2010, Marshall assaulted a FortYates woman, whom he was dating, by kicking her in the head and body with the tennis shoes on his feet after knocking her to the ground. The woman suffered a left orbital blowout fracture that required surgery to repair. Two witnesses in the area contacted law enforcement, who responded and located the woman lying in the street with injuries to her head and face. The witnesses directed officers to a residence where they observed Marshall walking. Officers located Marshall hiding in a closet of the home.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Indian Affairs - Standing Rock Agency
Assistant United States Attorney Rick Volk prosecuted the case.
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