By: ABQRAW staff
Posted: 01/12/2024 @ 7:05PM
Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, have announced that Lucinda Ann Yuzos has been sentenced to 41 months in prison. Yuzos, a 49-year-old Mescalero resident and enrolled member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, pleaded guilty in federal court on April 25, 2023, to assaulting an intimate partner resulting in substantial bodily injury.
As per court records, on the evening of May 31, 2022, Yuzos assaulted the victim, John Doe. Responding officers found John Doe on the front steps of the residence with blood dripping down his forehead from underneath a hat. Upon removing the hat, officers discovered a large 6-inch gash on the victim’s forehead with exposed bone. Mescalero Fire Rescue (MFR) was immediately contacted, and upon evaluating the victim, it was deemed that the injuries were so severe that he required immediate transportation via medevac to University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.
The victim spent four days in the hospital, sustaining a fractured right orbital floor and a significant blowout-type fracture of his right orbital wall, including displaced bone fragments in his sinuses, necessitating surgery. Post the initial surgeries, the victim underwent eight additional surgeries at the Eye Institute of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and he continues to receive treatment for the injuries inflicted by Yuzos.
In her plea agreement, Yuzos confessed to striking John Doe with a blunt object. During the sentencing hearing, Yuzos admitted that the object used was a 2×4.
Upon her release from prison, Yuzos will be subject to 3 years of supervised release.
The FBI Las Cruces Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office conducted the investigation with assistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joni Autrey Stahl is prosecuting the case.