ALBUQUERQUE - Emanuel Yazzie, 23, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Crownpoint, N.M., was sentenced this morning in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 36 months in prison followed by ten years of supervised release for his sexual abuse of a minor conviction. Yazzie also will be required to register as a sex offender.
Yazzie was arrested on March 5, 2015, on an indictment charging him with sexual abuse of a minor. According to the indictment, Yazzie engaged in a sexual act with the victim who was under 16 years of age in spring of 2014. The indictment alleged that Yazzie committed the crime on the Navajo Indian Reservation within San Juan County, N.M. On Dec. 15, 2015, Yazzie entered a guilty plea to the indictment.
This case was investigated by the Crownpoint office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Nayback.
This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
