Court Briefs | Driver pleads guilty in road rage case

LOS ANGELES

A Fruitland, New Mexico, man last week agreed to plead guilty in federal court in Albuquerque to using his vehicle and an air pistol in a case of road rage.

Perfinna King, 42, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. He is currently in custody by the U. S. Marshal’s Office in Albuquerque until his sentencing, which has not yet been set.

According to court records, King got into a dispute with another driver on Nov. 3, 2020, when he swerved into the lane of another vehicle. The other driver, thinking it was a joke being played on him by a relative, pulled over by the side of the road. King began cursing and threatening him.

“I was angry and when I drove by his vehicle,” he said. “I fired an air pistol.”

The other driver claimed King shattered the rear window on the driver’s side.

“When the other driver took a photo of King’s license plate, King attempted to hit the driver with his vehicle,” the complaint said.

A guilty verdict would have carried a prison term of up to 10 years. Under the plea agreement, however, the prosecution agreed to recommend a prison term of between 24 and 30 months.

A report by the probation office showed that he has had at least 15 prior criminal arrests and he has violated his term of release at least six times. Seven of these convictions were for felonies which led to a ruling that he was prohibited from possessing a firearm for the rest of his life.

After considering a request, Federal Magistrate Judge Laura Flashing denied that he be released.

She said that his arguments about his medical situation and his grandmother’s deteriorating health did not address the issue of what conditions could be imposed that would protect the safety of the community.

Man charged with assault with dangerous weapon

Brandon Barber, 36, was charged last week in federal court in Albuquerque to counts of assault with a dangerous weapon after he approached a Lower Fruitland man with a hatchet and a machete.
Later that day, he reportedly attacked a woman, threatening her with his machete and hatchet and carjacking her vehicle.

According to court records, the victim in the first assault was his father, who called the FBI on May 17 to report the assault, which took place in Lower Fruitland on May 5. He did this after learning about the carjacking.

His father, identified as G.B., told FBI agents that his son drove to his house that morning while he was sitting in his vehicle cleaning off glass from the passenger side window that Barber had broken the day before.

He said that he saw his son exit his vehicle carrying a machete in one hand and a hatchet in the other.

He said his son approached him and poked at him through the broken window with his machete. G.B. said he struck the vehicle several times with the machete, causing marks on the door and weather stripping.

Court records said that about 1:30 p.m. on that same day, Barber and a woman identified as Lindsay Yazzie, 40, assaulted a 30-year-old Nenahnezad woman identified as J.B. who said later she did not know either one of her attackers.

She was leaving her home when, according to the court documents, Yazzie threw a rock, shattering her Jeep’s windshield in her face. She then said she saw Barber running toward her Jeep, carrying a machete in one hand and a hatchet in the other.

He used the machete and hatchet to shatter the two back windows as well as doing more damage to the windshield. Yazzie then tried to remove her from her vehicle by pulling on her hair.
The Navajo Police were informed of the assaults and the carjacking and they began searching for the Jeep finally finding it in Hogback. Barber managed to get away but Yazzie was arrested after she was found hiding in the bush.

Barber was later arrested and turned over to the FBI. He is currently in the custody of the U. S. Marshal’s Office in Albuquerque. He has waived his preliminary and detention hearing.

Man pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder

Kristopher Lionel Goldtooth, 38, of Tuba City, was sentenced by a federal court judge in Prescott to more than 16 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder where the victim was shot in the face with a shotgun.

According to court records, federal prosecutors originally filed criminal charges against him for possession of firearms by a felon.

This came about on April 4, 2019, when a police officer with the Tuba City District pulled over a vehicle for traveling at night with no headlights on. Goldtooth was the driver of the vehicle.

The officer soon found out that Goldtooth was operating the vehicle with a revoked driver’s license. Seeing several knives within reach of Goldtooth and the passenger in the vehicle, the officer forced Goldtooth to exit the vehicle.

A search of the vehicle found four airsoft rifles, one broken airsoft rifle, nine magazines for an airsoft rifle and an unspent 9 mm casing. The officer also discovered that the vehicle had been reported to have been stolen.

The officer searched Goldtooth and discovered five unspent .22 caliber bullets in one pocket and two more in another pocket. He indicated that the rifles belonged to him.

A search of court records showed that Goldtooth had been convicted in 2005 of attempted armed robbery, a felony.

After being released on a bond, Goldtooth admitted in a 2022 plea agreement that on April 24, 2019, he had killed a man identified in court records as J.Y. by shooting him in the face with a shotgun.

In May of 2022, he entered a plea deal that reduced the first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder.

Woman pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter

Kayla Baker, 26, of Ganado, last week agreed to plead guilty in federal district court in Albuquerque to involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2008 accident that left one person dead and another with a serious injury.

According to court records, Baker was driving her car on June 16, 2018, in a state of intoxication. She tried to pass another car and steered in front of another car coming in the opposite direction.

The two vehicles collided head on resulting in the death of the other driver. A passenger in the other car received serious injury to one of his legs.

The accident took place near the 36-mile marker on Route 12 near Navajo, New Mexico.

Tests done on Baker after the accident showed she had a blood alcohol level of .12. She also tested positive to having THC in her blood system.

Leupp man sentenced for abuse sexual contact

A Leupp, Arizona, man was sentenced by a federal district judge in Prescott to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to abusive sexual contact of a child.

Brian James Tsinnijinnie, 26, was charged in connection with a crime that occurred in 2019. According to court records, the female victim was under the age of 12 at the time the incident occurred.

The crime occurred when the mother of the victim was in the hospital. He told FBI agents later that he was intoxicated at the time the assault occurred.

Records show that Tsinnijinnie had been convicted of child molestation when he was a juvenile living in Holbrook.

A psychological evaluation said he has a moderate to high risk to re-offend when he is released if he does not get any treatment in prison.

When he is released from prison he is required to remain on the sex offender list for the rest of his life. He will also be under supervised release for life.

Man pleads guilty to sexual abuse

Oozy Carl Watchman Sr. last week pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor in a case filed in the federal district court in Prescott.

He admitted committing the act during June of 2021. At the time, he was 38 and the victim was under the age of 15.

Federal guidelines set a maximum sentence for this offense as 30 years but because he accepted responsibility for his actions and showed remorse, the prosecution is recommending that his sentence should be given a reduced sentence, although no sentence was recommended.

He is currently being held in detention by the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Prescott until his sentencing. No date has been set for sentencing.

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