DENVER A man who pleaded guilty to a beating in Towaoc will spend another year in prison after a hearing that delved into a culture of silence among witnesses on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.
Benny Pargin Watts, 24, was sentenced Friday to 21 months in prison, but he has already spent 274 days in custody.
You got a real break with this sentence, U.S. District Judge William Martinez told Watts, who had no criminal history prior to this case.
Martinez noted the exceptional violence and rage of the March 28 assault on Sandoval Lopez and Linberg Steven Root. The beating involved a baseball bat, although Watts denied using a bat.
Watts was one of a group of people involved in the beating, although he was the only one indicted for it.
His lawyer, Robert Berger, said Watts accepted a deal to plead guilty to one count of assault in order to avoid causing more problems back home.
We didnt want to create any more trouble on the reservation by having a trial and having everybody testify this is his thinking and creating a divide, Berger said.
Although Watts and Berger initially wanted to go to trial, they changed their mind when no one wanted to testify on Watts behalf. Several witnesses had been drinking all day, and one witness had fought with one of the victims earlier in the day.
Watts also was drinking before the assault.
The case was essentially a bar room brawl, and who knows what the facts are, Berger said.
Watts thinks the sentence is fair, Berger said.
Watts chose to not make a statement during his sentencing hearing.
He has been getting his G.E.D. while in jail and wants to go to art school to be a painter, the judge noted.
The case has already raised long-standing concerns about witness retaliation.
Prosecutors said when Watts struck Root, he said, This is for my brother Nathaniel Taylor!
Root was a witness in a 1998 murder case against Taylor, who is Watts half-brother.
In that case, Taylor was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the stabbing of Richard Bearshead. The case was not prosecuted until 2003.
Two witnesses heard someone shout about Taylor, and one of them identified Watts as the man who said it, FBI Special Agent Margaret Russin testified.
Berger said Watts did not grow up with his half-brother, Taylor, and he did not attack Root as revenge for his long-ago testimony in the murder case.
The thought that Benny Watts in 2011 is retaliating against Root for that role he had is somewhat fantastic to believe, Berger said.
But Russin said a reluctance of crime witnesses to talk to police is a constant feature of nearly every case she investigates on the reservation.
Towaoc is a small town where nearly everyone is somehow related, she said.
And then theres fear.
I think in general theres a lack of belief the police will be able to protect them if they testify, Russin said.
Witness intimidation ranges from phone messages to Facebook postings to jailhouse talk all the way up to homicide, she said.
Prosecutor Todd Norvell and Berger worked out the 21-month sentence deal in advance, and Norvell urged the judge to support it because it was long enough to do justice but not so long that it would cause hard feelings.
The vast majority of people in Towaoc just want to live in peace and safety, Norvell said.
This can send a message to the community: Please report. Please come forward, Norvell said. We have to make something positive happen in cases where we get a chance to do that.
