United States v. Frank Benally

BREITENSTEIN, Circuit Judge.

Appellant-defendant Frank Benally was indicted for, and convicted by a jury of, vehicular homicide in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153 and 1112. He appeals from the sentence pronounced. We reverse.

On February 18, 1983, defendant, a Navajo Indian, gave his neighbors and relatives, Jerry and Dorothy Wilson, also Navajo Indians, a ride from Newcomb, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation to Farmington, New Mexico, to do various errands. They drove first to Shiprock, New Mexico, and went to the Turquoise Bar where Jerry Wilson purchased one pint and one fifth of Garden…