Mescalero Apache Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Assault Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Anthony John Shanta, 20, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who resides in Mescalero, N.M., was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for his assault conviction.

Shanta was arrested in Sept. 2012, on a criminal complaint alleging that he stabbed another Mescalero Apache man in the neck during an altercation on July 21, 2012, in a location within the Mescalero Apache Reservation.  Shanta was indicted on March 5, 2013, and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon.

On Aug. 7, 2013, Shanta entered a guilty plea to the indictment.  In his plea agreement, Shanta admitted assaulting the victim by stabbing him in the neck with a small pocket knife.  Shanta stated that he assaulted the victim in anger because the victim was verbally taunting him.

Before his arrest on federal charges in this case, Shanta entered a guilty plea to tribal charges of assault and battery of the victim and to public intoxication in the Mescalero Tribal Court.
           
This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the FBI and the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron O. Jordan, of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.