United States Attorney Randolph J. Seiler announced that an Eagle Butte, South Dakota, man convicted of Assault Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury and Failure to Appear was sentenced on September 14, 2016, by U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange.
Raymond Uses The Knife, III, a/k/a Yamni Uses The Knife, III, age 25, was sentenced to 37 months in custody, to be followed by 2 years of supervised release, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $100 on the assault charge. Uses The Knife was sentenced to 2 months in custody, and ordered to pay a special assessment of $100 to the Federal Crime Victims Fund on the failure to appear charge. The two sentences are to be served consecutively.
Uses The Knife was indicted on the assault charge by a federal grand jury on February 17, 2016. Uses The Knife was indicted on the failure to appear charge by a federal grand jury on April 13, 2016. He pled guilty on both charges on June 1, 2016.
The conviction on the assault stemmed from an incident on July 25, 2015 when Uses The Knife, along with three other co-defendants (one of them a juvenile), assaulted a male victim. One co-defendant confronted the victim. The victim kept backing away. Uses the Knife and his co-defendants encouraged the other co-defendant to fight the victim, who eventually took off running. Uses The Knife and one co-defendant started running after the victim, while the other adult co-defendant and the juvenile co-defendant followed in a car, eventually catching up with the victim and blocking his way, but the victim was able to get away and continued to run. The juvenile followed on foot and was able to catch up with the victim, knocking the victim to the ground. All three adult co-defendants caught up and started hitting and kicking the victim repeatedly, then fled the scene and drove off together. As a result of the assault, the victim had a broken arm. He also received six sutures to his head from a laceration. He also had numerous “bumps” on his head from the attack.
The conviction on the failure to appear stemmed from an incident on April 5, 2016, when Uses The Knife, who was directed to appear in court for a bond violation, failed to appear for the hearing.
These cases were investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Miller prosecuted both cases.
Uses The Knife was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.