ALBUQUERQUE – Rode Lyle Enjady, 38, an enrolled member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation who resides in Dulce, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to an assault charge. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Enjady will be sentenced to 36 months in prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.
Enjady was arrested in Oct. 2016, on an indictment charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon, a knife, with intent to do bodily harm, assault with a dangerous weapon, a metal weight, with intent to do bodily harm, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and assault of an intimate partner by strangling or suffocating. According to the indictment, Enjady committed the crimes between Feb. 11, 2016 and Feb. 17, 2016, on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in Rio Arriba County, N.M.
During today’s proceedings, Enjady pled guilty to Count 3 of the indictment charging him with assault resulting in serious bodily injury. In entering the guilty plea, Enjady admitted that between Feb. 11, 2016 and Feb. 17, 2016, he physically abused his intimate partner, a Jicarilla Apache woman, the victim by physically assaulting her. Enjady also admitted that he caused the victim to lose a tooth, suffer from bruising to the face, head, abdomen, back, pubic region, and legs as well as suffer from stab wounds to her legs. A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall.
This case was brought as part of the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico, which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native American women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court, or both. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women, and is another step in the Justice Department's on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.