Man pleads guilty in nonfatal shooting of sister

LOS ANGELES

Raymond Lodgepole signed a plea agreement on Feb. 28 in federal district court in Prescott pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and assault with a dangerous weapon in a shooting incident that occurred in January 2021.

He faced a prison sentence of 10 years each but prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison term or no more than six years. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for May 15 in Prescott.

The shooting took place about 9:15 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2021, at the residence of Irene Freeman, Lodgepole’s mother. The residence is located four miles southwest of the Kayenta mine.

Several members of Freeman’s family witnessed the incident although the accounts differed on what happened that night, everyone, including Lodgepole, said he shot his sister, TJ, twice in the leg by firing the rifle through the door of the residence.

Navajo Police arrived at the residence about 20 minutes after the family called 911. By that time Lodgepole had left the area in a pickup. The pickup was stopped by police a little after 10 p.m. and Lodgepole was taken into custody.

According to police and court records, both Lodgepole and his sister were highly intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

Although he changed his account several times, he said he was inside the the residence when he heard someone knocking loudly on the door trying to get in.

In one of his accounts, he said his sister entered the house and abused his mother, who was 80 years old, and punched him in the head.

With the help of Giovanni Yazzie, they were able to remove TJ from the residence and closed the door. He said the rifle was nearby and he picked it up and fired warning shots to get them to leave.

Two of the shots went through the closed door. TJ was on the other side and suffered two gunshot wounds to the right leg.

When she was later treated at the Flagstaff Medical Center, doctors also treated trauma to her head. She later told FBI agents that when she first entered the house, she and Lodgepole got into a fight and she remembered him striking her over the head with a frying pan and knocking her to the ground.

She said she went to her mother’s house, which is located next to door, to borrow her pickup so she could go to the grocery store for food. Freeman refused and Lodgepole, who had been sleeping, woke up and confronted her. That is when the fight occurred.

She left the house and was standing just outside the door when she heard two shots and felt a sharp pain in her leg. She said she thought that only Lodgepole and Freeman were in the house at the time and since her mother was elderly, she said she thought the shots were fired by Lodgepole.

Freeman told FBI agents that at one point she saw Lodgepole trying to push the door shut but TJ and her children “pushed their way into the house and attacked them,” said the police report.

TJ’s children, according to Lodgepole’s arrest complaint, were between the ages of 12 and 17.

She said at some point after that she and Yazzie were able to leave the house so she was not in the house when the shots were fired.

“She made her way to the hills where she claimed she hid in the cold for hours until she said everyone left,” said the police report.

The report said TJ was transported to Flagstaff and Lodgepole was arrested miles from the residence within 30 minutes of the shooting.

TJ and her children said they did not attack Lodgepole or the mother. The oldest son said when he went over to Freeman’s house he witnessed a Lodgepole hitting his mother over the head with a rifle.

In his final interview with FBI agents two days after the shooting, Lodgepole continued to claim that TJ was kicking the door and trying to push her way into the house.

FBI officials, however, examined the door and found no indication that anyone kicked it. The only damage was the two holes caused by the rifle.

He said he did not mean to hurt anyone and did not know anyone was hurt when he got in the pickup and left. He added that he did not know anyone was outside the door when he fired the rifle.

The firearm charge stems from a felony conviction he received in 2002 for sexual contact with a minor. That case was heard in the Coconino Superior Court.

Lodgepole remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Office in Prescott.

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