Police Blotter: ‘Consistently violent’ Tuba City man sentenced to 30 years

Posted by Bill Donovan | Feb 9, 2017 | Police Blotter |

PHOENIX — Al Shonnie Ben, 40, of Tuba City was sentenced to 30 years in prison this week after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping.

He had been charged in February 2015 with three counts of kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault resulting in serious bodily injury and assault resulting in substantial bodily injury by a spouse or intimate partner.

The charges stem from an incident that took place in Tuba City on Sept. 6, 2014 when he assaulted three people with a knife and kidnapped them with all three victims receiving serious injuries.

The sentencing was delayed in part because of a court case that was going on in state court in Coconino County, in which Ben was accused of threatening to throw two minor children out of the window of a moving vehicle if their parents would not shut them up.

Ben later denied saying this.

A report by a federal probation officer pointed out that Ben had two serious violent felony convictions as well as 15 misdemeanor convictions in state court.

“The defendant also has numerous arrests, including 10 arrests for mostly violent offenses on the Navajo Nation, most of which were either not prosecuted or dismissed,” according to court records.

Court records said that Ben’s first felony arrest was for stabbing his brother 32 times.

“While on supervised release in that case, he committed his second felony, which involved him robbing a woman after punching and kicking her,” court records stated. “The defendant’s criminal behavior has been consistently violent and escalating.”

The court record said he was in the process of pleading in a case currently in Coconino County in which he is expected to receive a lengthy sentence that will run concurrent with his sentence in federal court.