PHOENIX, Ariz. – On June 17, 2024, United States District Judge Michael T. Liburdi gave 24-year-old Leonard Thomas Stewart III a sentence of 188 months in jail followed by a life of supervision. Stewart admitted that he had sex with a child without consent on October 31, 2023.
From October 3, 2017, to July 11, 2019, Stewart had several inappropriate sex encounters with the young victim. In Fort Defiance, Stewart and a young victim had sexual contact while they were riding horses together. The abused sexual contact took place on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation, and both the victim and Stewart are Navajo Nation Indian Tribe members.
In this case, the probe was done by the Federal Bureau of Probe and the Navajo Nation Police Department. The case was brought by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina J. Reid-Moore from the District of Arizona in Phoenix.
