A Shiprock man was sentenced on May 12 to 210 months in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for killing a man during a break-in at a residence on the Navajo Nation.
The case concerns the death of John Doe, who was fatally stabbed while trying to stop an assault inside his own home. The sentence highlights the serious consequences of violent crime within Native American communities and underscores law enforcement efforts to address such offenses.
According to court documents, Armondo Paul, age 25 and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, went to a home in Shiprock, New Mexico in the early morning hours of June 27, 2025. Paul shut off electricity to the house, kicked open the back door, and assaulted one occupant. When John Doe tried to intervene on behalf of this individual, Paul stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife he had brought from his own home. Doe fled but died in his driveway.
Paul pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Indian Country. In addition to his prison term, he will be subject upon release to five years of supervised release that includes mandatory mental-health treatment. He must also pay $5,471.37 restitution for funeral costs incurred by the Crime Victims Reparation Commission and further restitution yet undetermined for transportation and counseling costs incurred by Doe’s family.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Justin A. Garris, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, made this announcement jointly.
The Farmington Resident Agency of the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office investigated with assistance from both the Navajo Nation Police Department and Department of Criminal Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary C. Jones is prosecuting.
