Red Lake man sentenced for domestic assault with a shotgun

MINNEAPOLIS — A Red Lake man was sentenced Thursday for assaulting a woman with a shotgun.

Brian Gordon Graves, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank to 21 months in federal prison on one count of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of domestic assault by a habitual offender, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

He was convicted Jan. 31.

Graves assaulted the victim with a 12-gauge shotgun on Oct. 6 on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, according to the press release. He was convicted for assault on at least two prior occasions more than a decade ago in Red Lake Indian Tribal Court, the press release said.

“This is the second time the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota has prosecuted someone under the federal “domestic assault by a habitual offender” law,” the press release stated. “That law was enacted in 2006 by Congress as support to the Violence Against Women Act of 2000.”

The law is a “valuable tool” for prosecutors, the release says, because research shows a high rate of domestic violence against American Indian women.