ALBUQUERQUE – Ryan Thompson, 32, of Tohatchi, N.M. was sentenced in federal court yesterday to 240 months in prison for kidnapping and sexually assaulting his former girlfriend within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.
Thompson previously entered a guilty plea to these charges on February 5, 2019. According to court documents, Thompson kidnapped the victim and her 3-year-old child at a gas station in Gallup, N.M. on November 15, 2017. Thompson then drove them to a remote location where he brutally beat and sexually assaulted the victim throughout the night. Thompson confined the victim and her child for a total of two days before she finally escaped and alerted law enforcement.
The Navajo Times reported: After taking away her cell phone, he got into the driver’s seat and they drove off. He drove them to a rocky hill past the Pentecostal Church near Tohatchi, forcing her to drink vodka, threatening to hit her in the eye if she didn’t comply. According to the complaint, she tried to drive away when Thomson got out of the vehicle to urinate but Thompson stopped her and dragged her out of the vehicle and told her to take off her clothes. When she complied, she was raped, according to complaint.
After the assault, the complaint said Thompson told her to pick a tree, telling her he planned to kill her and her daughter and bury them by the tree. He didn’t carry out the threat. Instead, he made them sleep in the vehicle with him that night, refusing to let them out of the vehicle for any reason, even to go to the bathroom.
