Third Defendant Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Victims in Supai at Bottom of Grand Canyon
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 08, 2011 |
PHOENIX—Victor Grounds, 30, a member of the Havasupai Indian Tribe, pleaded guilty yesterday to assault resulting in serious bodily injury for striking a victim in the Supai Village, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in December 2010.
On December 20, 2010 at 2:30 a.m. on the Havasupai Indian Reservation, Grounds, along with co-defendants Tony Crooke and Robert Hastings, Jr. kicked down the door and broke into a Supai home with three victims inside. Crooke and Hastings punched one sleeping victim in the face. The victim suffered a broken orbital bone and lacerations to his face. Grounds punched a second victim in the face. Crooke grabbed a knife and stabbed the second victim in his rib area. The second victim suffered a four-inch stab wound, a lacerated liver, significant blood loss, a closed head injury, and blunt trauma to the spine, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. Crooke threatened the unharmed female on the way out if she told police. Hastings asked the victims for money, and looked for money in the pockets of the two victims they assaulted. The three defendants fled, and police were called. The two victims were flown out of the Grand Canyon and treated at a hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Sentencing is set before U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell on December 5, 2011. Crooke and Hastings have also pleaded guilty. A conviction for each count of assault carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. In determining an actual sentence, Judge Campbell will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges. The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The prosecution in this case is being handled by Jennifer E. Green, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix.
CASE NUMBER: CR-11-8018-003-PCT-DGC
RELEASE NUMBER: 2011-203(Grounds)