Navajo Man from Red Mesa, Utah, Sentenced to Prison for Federal Involuntary Manslaughter Conviction in New Mexico

U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Mexico
7 February 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBUQUERQUE – Lelander Mays, 32, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Red Mesa, Utah, was sentenced yesterday afternoon in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on an involuntary manslaughter charge.

Mays was arrested in Dec. 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with involuntary manslaughter. According to the complaint, Mays killed a man when Mays crashed his vehicle on Dec. 6, 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in San Juan County, N.M. At the time of the crash, Mays was driving under the influence of alcohol and the victim, who was a passenger in Mays’ vehicle, was thrown from the vehicle.

Mays was subsequently indicted on Dec. 20, 2016, and charged with involuntary manslaughter. On June 7, 2017, Mays pled guilty to the indictment without the benefit of a plea agreement.

This case was investigated by the Farmington office of the FBI, the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and the New Mexico State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall prosecuted the case.