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Press Release

Plummer Man Pleads Guilty To Strangulation Charge

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Idaho

COEUR D’ALENE - James Andrew Samuels, Jr., 27, of Plummer, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court to strangulation, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

According to the plea agreement, on November 15, 2013, Samuels got into an argument with a woman he was dating. Samuels admitted that he grabbed the victim by the neck and strangled or attempted to strangler her. The woman was transported to the hospital and later released, having sustained bruises to her face and neck.

The charge is punishable by up to ten years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.

Samuels is scheduled to be sentenced on March 3, 2015, by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Coeur d’Alene.

The case was investigated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted in federal court because the crime occurred on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation and the defendant is an enrolled member of the Coeur d’Alene tribe.

Updated December 15, 2014

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