Zuni Pueblo Man Sentenced for Federal Involuntary Manslaughter Conviction

U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Mexico
29 August 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBUQUERQUE – Darold Ray ZunieFeathers, 21, a member and resident of Zuni Pueblo, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Santa Fe, N.M., to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his involuntary manslaughter conviction.

ZunieFeathers was arrested in April 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with involuntary manslaughter. According to the complaint, ZunieFeathers killed a Zuni Pueblo man by running over him with a vehicle on July 29, 2015, on the Zuni Indian Reservation in McKinley County, N.M. At the time ZunieFeathers ran over the victim, ZunieFeathers was driving under the influence of alcohol. ZunieFeathers was subsequently indicted on the same charge on May 10, 2016.

On Jan. 11, 2017, ZunieFeathers pled guilty to the indictment and admitted killing the victim by driving recklessly while under the influence of alcohol. ZunieFeathers acknowledged that the alcohol rendered him incapable of exercising clear judgment and a steady hand in operating the vehicle.

This case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI and the Zuni Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall.