Security News: Gallup man sentenced to five years in prison for child sex abuse in Indian Country

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Armando Segovia, 32, of Gallup, New Mexico, was sentenced on Aug. 12 to five years and three months in prison for abusive sexual contact of a minor in Indian Country. Segovia pleaded guilty on April 6.

According to the plea agreement and other court records, between July 1, 2016, and Nov. 1, 2016, Segovia, who is non-Indian, engaged in sexual contact with the victim, identified in court records as Jane Doe. The victim, an enrolled member of the Zuni Pueblo, was less than 12 years old at the time of the abuse. Segovia committed the abuse on the Zuni Pueblo in McKinley County, New Mexico.

 Upon his release from prison, Segovia will be subject to 10 years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender.

The Gallup Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and the Gallup Police Department investigated this case. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Van Deventer prosecuted the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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