A Shiprock man was sentenced to 30 months in jail for sexually assaulting a young person whereas he was appearing because the lady’s medication man, the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of New Mexico introduced Tuesday.
Leonard Lewis, 66, pleaded responsible in October to the assault, which occurred on two consecutive days within the spring of 2021, in keeping with court docket paperwork. The 15-year-old lady turned pregnant in consequence, Lewis wrote in his admission of details.
Lewis stated within the admission that he’s a Navajo medication man and the lady’s grandmother introduced the kid to Lewis to preform a conventional Navajo ceremony, and he assaulted her in an RV on his property in San Juan County.
“I did this once more the following day after asking her grandmother to convey her again for one more ceremony,” Lewis wrote within the court docket doc. “Finally, Jane Doe turned pregnant and bore a toddler of whom I’m the organic father.”
After he’s launched from jail, Lewis will face a lifetime of supervised launch and should register as a intercourse offender, in keeping with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.
Dennis Candelaria, Lewis’ lawyer, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that his shopper suffers from anxiousness and is grieving after dropping 4 siblings and a daughter in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Candelaria stated Lewis is sick and makes use of a walker.
U.S. District Choose Kea W. Riggs handed down the sentence throughout a listening to Monday in Albuquerque.
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