Red Lake man sentenced to federal prison in kidnapping, assault case

DULUTH-A Red Lake man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison for kidnapping and assaulting three people on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in February 2015.

Darrell Lussier, 36, was sentenced before Judge Richard H. Kyle in U.S. District Court in Duluth. A federal jury found Lussier guilty Sept. 3 on three counts each of kidnapping and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

Lussier was charged after three people were taken Feb. 10 to the Red Lake Hospital and then to a Fargo hospital with traumatic brain injuries and various broken bones and other injuries, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to court documents, Lussier was at a Red Lake home on Feb. 9 when he and the owner of the house got into a heated argument. Lussier severally punched and kicked the man before wrapping a shoelace around his neck in an attempt to strangle him, the release said. He then threw the man into a crawlspace beneath the house. Lussier then assaulted two other people in the home, a legally blind man and his sister before putting them in the crawlspace, the release said.

Because the Red Lake Indian Reservation is a federal-jurisdiction reservation, some crimes there are investigated by the FBI in conjunction with the Red Lake Tribal Police Department. Those cases are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Deidre Y. Aanstad.