Shiprock Man Sentenced to More Than 14 Years for Conviction on Involuntary Manslaughter, Assault, and Firearms Charges

ALBUQUERQUE—Clay O’Brien Mann, 29, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Shiprock, New Mexico, was sentenced this afternoon to 171 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on involuntary manslaughter, assault, and firearms charges. Mann also was ordered to pay $40,003 in restitution to the victims of his crimes.

Mann’s sentence was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Steven C. Yarbrough, Special Agent in Charge Carol K.O. Lee of the Albuquerque Division of the FBI, and Director John Billison of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety.

Mann was arrested in July 2010, on a criminal complaint alleging that he killed a Navajo man and assaulted another Navajo man and a Navajo woman with a dangerous weapon on the Navajo Indian Reservation, on July 24, 2010. Mann subsequently was indicted and charged with first degree murder, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily injury, two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and three counts of discharging a firearm in furtherance of an act of violence. Proceedings in the case were delayed by competency proceedings.

Trial of the case began on July 8, 2013 and concluded five days later when the jury returned a verdict finding Mann not guilty on the first-degree murder charge but guilty on the lesser included charge of involuntary manslaughter. The jury also found Mann guilty on two counts of assault resulting in serious bodily injury and two counts of discharging a firearm in furtherance of an act of violence. It acquitted Mann on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily injury and the third firearms charge. The court subsequently vacated the conviction on one of the firearms counts.

The evidence at trial established that, at approximately 4:00 a.m. on July 24, 2010, an inebriated Mann drove his car to his neighbor’s property and launched an artillery shell into the neighbor’s property where the neighbor and his friends were socializing. When Ames Joseph Jim and another man and a woman walked over to see what was going on, Mann fired a semi-automatic rifle at them, shooting Mr. Jim in the face and heart, the other man in the face, and the woman in the neck. Mr. Jim died as a result of his injuries and the other two victims were seriously injured.

This case was investigated by the Farmington office of the FBI and the Shiprock office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Presiliano A. Torrez.