Thursday, March 28, 2024

Police Blotter: Child pornographer gets 30 years

GALLUP

A Gallup man accused of possession and distributing child pornography was given a 30-year sentence in a Gallup district court Friday.

Baron Solorzano is also accused of raping a six-year-old girl, videotaping the rape, and then downloading it onto the Internet.

But he didn’t plead to that charge. Instead, he pled to criminal sexual contact of a minor in the second degree, two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor in the third degree, and one count each of exploiting a minor and of manufacturing child pornography.

Attorneys for the state attorney general’s office urged New Mexico District Court Judge Louis DePauli Jr. to give him the maximum sentence of 45 years while his defense attorney, Richard Wade, said 15 years would be more appropriate.

DePauli sentenced him at first to the 45 years and then suspended five years since by pleading guilty, he spared the victim, now eight years, old from testifying before a jury. Later he announced the sentence was 30 years. Solorzano has been in jai for the past two years awaiting trial.

Woman assaulted; Crownpoint man in custody

GALLUP — A Crownpoint man is now in federal custody on charges of aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

Jonathan Dan Clyde, 36, was arrested on Feb. 8 and is now being detained by the U.S. Marshall’s Office.

According to the federal complaint, Clyde assaulted a woman he had been living with for the past five years on Jan. 21, after coming back from work and getting into an argument while he was intoxicated.

The woman, who is referred to as Jane Doe in the complaint, told him to get out of the house at which time he reportedly pushed her to the floor and started kicking and punching her face while she was on the floor yelling for him to stop.

He then reportedly grabbed the victim by her hair and dragged her across the kitchen floor. The complaint said she then was able to get to her feet and attempt an escape, but Clyde grabbed her from behind and threw her on the floor again.

“Once on the floor, Clyde started slamming Jane Doe’s face into the kitchen floor,” as she again began yelling for him to stop. She managed to roll on her back, but she said, “He started choking me and I almost blacked out. I did not want him to kill me so I fought to get my breath back.”

She said Clyde then walked away and the accuser said she lifted herself up by her left arm at which point Clyde returned and kicked her in the left arm. She said she “heard a crack.”

She was transported later that day to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, according to the complaint, and was scheduled to undergo surgery to her arm. Surgeons said the damage was to her humerus bone and it may be damaged permanently.


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About The Author

Bill Donovan

Bill Donovan wrote about Navajo Nation government and its people since 1971. He joined Navajo Times in 1976, and retired from full-time reporting in 2018 to move to Torrance, Calif., to be near his kids. He continued to write for the Times until his passing in August 2022.

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