ALBUQUERQUE - Derek I. Hunt, 28, of Santa Fe, N.M., pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal damage to property. Hunt’s plea agreement includes a recommendation that Hunt be sentenced to a one-year term of probation, including 120 days in a halfway house.
Hunt was charged in a criminal complaint on Feb. 8, 2017, with misdemeanor criminal trespass and criminal damage to property. The complaint alleged that in Aug. 2016, the Pojoaque Pueblo Governor banished Hunt, a non-Indian, from entering Pojoaque Tribal Lands. According to the complaint, Hunt reentered Pojoaque Pueblo on two occasions between Aug. 2016 and Jan. 2017, in violation of the Pueblo’s banishment resolution. The complaint also alleged that on Jan. 12, 2017, Hunt damaged a vehicle belonging to a Pojoaque Pueblo woman.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Hunt pled guilty to a misdemeanor information charging him with criminal trespass and criminal damage to property. In entering the guilty plea, Hunt admitted that although the Pueblo of Pojoaque served him with an Order of Exclusion in Aug. 2016, he reentered the Pueblo on Jan. 5, 2017 and several times prior to Jan. 5, 2017, in violation of the Pueblo’s Tribal Order. Hunt further admitted that on Jan. 5, 2017, he used a rock to damage the windshield of a vehicle on the Pojoaque Pueblo. A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Northern Pueblos Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and the Pojoaque Pueblo Tribal Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elisa Dimas.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
