Police Blotter: Woman sentenced in assault case

GALLUP

A Standing Rock, New Mexico, woman has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after her conviction on federal assault charges.

Chelsey A. Billy, 22, will also be on supervised release for three years after completing her prison sentence.

According to Navajo and FBI records, Navajo police were called to the Crownpoint Public Health Service Hospital about 9:10 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2015 where they met a 32-year-old Navajo man in the hospital’s emergency room.

The man, whose name has not been released, had received injuries to his left eye, including orbital fractures, as well as three blunt force injuries to his head. He named Billy as his assailant.

The incident occurred at the Navajo Housing Authority complex in Standing Rock.

The victim’s mother, who lived next door, told tribal police that she had been summoned to her son’s house that night and found him lying on the floor in the living room as two older females were fighting.

When Navajo Nation Police Sgt. C. Bryant arrived on the scene, he said saw the victim slouched against a couch with his mother holding him. He had lacerations on his face and a swollen left eye. He said he could smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from the victim’s body.

Witnesses interviewed by police said that Billy had assaulted the victim with a hammer when he tried to defend one of the women who was fighting.
Upon hearing that, Bryant went searching for Billy, according to her arrest report, and found her in the passenger seat of a vehicle parked nearby.

Bryant interviewed the driver who told him that Billy said to him that she had “beat a guy with a hammer and tossed the hammer.”

The driver added that when he picked Billy up she did have a hammer on her.

Bryant later talked to the owner of the NHA unit where the incident occurred and received permission to search the house and found a ballpeen hammer located behind the living room couch. The hammer had red stains on it.

The case was then turned over to FBI agents who conducted an interview with Billy during which she admitted, according to the arrest report, that she had hit the victim with a hammer.

She said the victim had been throwing water bottles at her mother. She allegedly added that she hit the victim four or five times with the hammer and then threw it behind the couch.

“Chelsey stated that (the victim) deserved what he got and that (she) did not feel remorseful,” the arrest warrant said.

On July 18, Billy pleaded guilty to an assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

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