Española Man Pleads Guilty and is Sentenced for Abandoning Child and Assaulting Girlfriend

ALBUQUERQUE – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Larry G. Valdez, Jr. pled guilty to the crimes of child abandonment and assault by striking, beating, or wounding and was sentenced to one year of probation.

In March 2022, Valdez, Jr. struck John Doe’s mother with a closed fist at a roadside location within the exterior boundaries of the Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh. When six-year-old John Doe (Valdez, Jr.’s son) attempted to intervene on his mother’s behalf, Valdez, Jr. punched John Doe in the face with a closed fist, which caused Doe to sustain a bloodied and swollen upper lip. Valdez, Jr. then left John Doe and Doe’s mother by the dark roadside without calling for medical attention.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated this case with assistance from the Ohkay Owingeh Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary Jones is prosecuting the case.

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