ALDIN RAY TWO MOONS, SR. SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on August 10, 2011, before Senior U.S. District Judge Jack D. Shanstrom, ALDIN RAY TWO MOONS, SR., a 37-year-old resident of Lame Deer, appeared for sentencing. TWO MOONS was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 57 months

Special Assessment: $200

Supervised Release: 3 years

TWO MOONS was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to domestic assault by a habitual offender.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

On August 28, 2010, a female individual reported to law enforcement that she had been physically assaulted by her common-law-husband, TWO MOONS.

TWO MOONS and the victim have a number of young children together, including then two-week-old twins. On the evening of August 28, the two had gone drinking together and both were intoxicated when they returned home to Lame Deer. While the victim was caring for the twins, TWO MOONS struck her several times in the face with his fists while several of their other children were watching. When questioned by law enforcement, TWO MOONS admitted that he had assaulted the victim by punching her in the face several times, claiming he was doing so because she was intoxicated and he wanted to keep her away from the babies. He then acknowledged that he did not need to strike her to do so, and he immediately pled guilty in tribal court to the assault.

During this investigation, additional information was revealed about another domestic abuse case in October 2008 where TWO MOONS had assaulted this same individual. In that case, TWO MOONS was again intoxicated and assaulted the victim by striking her in the face. A BIA officer had responded to the report of TWO MOONS attempting to fight with numerous people in the Muddy Cluster housing area. When the officer arrived at TWO MOONS' residence, he attempted to arrest him and TWO MOONS escaped and fled the area.

TWO MOONS has had ten tribal arrests for domestic abuse, with four of those resulting in convictions.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that TWO MOONS will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, TWO MOONS does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.