Donald Carl Salois Found Guilty in U.S. Federal Court

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that on January 30, 2013, in Great Falls, after a federal district court trial before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, Donald Carl Salois, a 49-year-old resident of Browning, was found guilty of aggravated sexual abuse. Sentencing is set for May 20, 2013. He is currently detained.

At trial, the following evidence and testimony was presented to the jury. Salois picked up his victim in a 2000 Ford Ranger along Highway 2, south of Browning. Salois said that he would take the victim home, but that never occurred. Instead, Salois passed the victim’s residence, stopped at a sufficiently secluded place, exited his vehicle, and brutally raped the victim.

When questioned by law enforcement, Salois admitted that he had sex with the victim but claimed the encounter was consensual and occurred in his residence, not on the side of the road. Salois also claimed that he never left his residence the night of the rape. The FBI investigated and discovered that neighbors, on the night of the rape, did not see the 2000 Ford Ranger owned by Salois at the residence.

After the government presented testimony of 12 witnesses over the course of a day and a half, which included medical professionals, law enforcement, lay witnesses, and a DNA expert, the jury convicted Salois.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan G. Weldon and Laura B. Weiss prosecuted the case for the United States.

Salois faces possible penalties of life imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and lifetime supervised release.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.