Navajo Man Sentenced to Prison for Federal Involuntary Manslaughter Conviction

U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Mexico
3 May 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALBUQUERQUE – Alrenzon Yazzie, 20, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Sanostee, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 36 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on an involuntary manslaughter charge.

Yazzie was arrested in Sept. 2017, on a criminal complaint charging him with killing a Navajo woman on Sept. 3, 2017, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in San Juan County, N.M. According to the complaint, Yazzie killed the victim by running her over with a vehicle. At the time Yazzie ran over the victim, Yazzie was driving under the influence of alcohol.

On Dec. 1, 2017, Yazzie pled guilty to a felony information charging him with involuntary manslaughter and admitted killing the victim by striking her with his vehicle while driving recklessly while under the influence of alcohol. Yazzie 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 Farmington office of the FBI and the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Novaline D. Wilson prosecuted the case.