David Charles Prins, 47, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation, pled guilty Friday afternoon in Las Cruces, N.M., to a federal assault charge.
Prins was arrested on April 24, 2015, on a criminal complaint that charged him with assault by striking resulting in serious bodily injury. According to the complaint, on Sept. 19, 2014, security guards at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Hotel responded to a disturbance in Prins’ hotel room, where they allegedly found Prins in bloody clothes and the victim unconscious on the floor covered in blood. As a result of her injuries, the victim had to have her ear sewn and she suffered facial bone fractures.
Prins was subsequently charged by indictment on June 17, 2015, with assault resulting in serious bodily injury which occurred on Sept. 19, 2014, in Otero County, N.M. During Friday’s proceedings, Prins entered a guilty plea to the indictment without the benefit of a plea agreement.
At sentencing, Prins faces a statutory maximum penalty of ten years in prison followed by up to three years of supervised release. Prins remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Mescalero Agency of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Gould of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.
The case was brought pursuant to the Tribal Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (Tribal SAUSA) Pilot Project in the District of New Mexico which is sponsored by the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women under a grant administered by the Pueblo of Laguna. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project seeks to train tribal prosecutors in federal law, procedure and investigative techniques to increase the likelihood that every viable violent offense against Native women is prosecuted in either federal court or tribal court, or both. The Tribal SAUSA Pilot Project was largely driven by input gathered from annual tribal consultations on violence against women, and is another step in the Justice Department's on-going efforts to increase engagement, coordination and action on public safety in tribal communities.
Information from Department of Justice