A 27-year-old man from New Mexico has been sentenced to 166 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release after shooting a man on Ute Mountain Ute reservation.
Lovell Cassius Benallie was found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon and discharging a firearm during a violent crime on the reservation on Aug. 24, 2023.
That day, Benallie and “an associate” traveled north and west to the Ute Mountain Ute Casino to gamble, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Afterward, Benallie went to the Ute Mountain Ute Travel Center.
There, he “approached an elderly Navajo man preparing to use the laundry facility,” the release said.
In an interaction “lasted about eighteen seconds,” Benallie ordered the elderly man to “Give me all your money,” and pointed a 9 mm gun at him.
When the man replied, “What money,” “Benallie aimed and fired the gun at the man’s leg,” and then “fled the scene,” according to the press release.
The victim was “airlifted to Grand Junction for medical treatment.” Though he survived, he suffered serious and “enduring” injuries.
It wasn’t Benallie’s first felony.
He has “several prior felony convictions, including a conviction for aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon in Farmington,” the release said.
“Gun violence will not be tolerated on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation,” said Acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch in the news release.
"This defendant … shot a total stranger during an attempted robbery. Any such act of violence on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation gets the full attention of FBI Denver," said Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek in the release.
“We will continue to support the Bureau of Indian Affairs and those who live on the reservation by investigating criminal acts and removing the perpetrators from the community," Michalek said.
The BIA and FBI Durango conducted the investigation.
