Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

ALBUQUERQUE – Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney and U.S. Marshal Conrad E. Candelaria announced that a federal grand jury has charged Nathan Jensen, 34, of Albuquerque, N.M., with assaulting a federal employee.  Jensen entered a not guilty plea to the indictment this morning during an arraignment hearing in federal court.

 

The indictment, which was filed on Sept. 21, charges Jensen with assaulting a federal employee who was engaged in the performance of his official duties on May 11, 2017, in the Sandoval County Detention Center (assault case).  At the time, Jensen was detained pending sentencing in another federal case in which he had entered a guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition (firearms case).

 

Court records reflect that the U.S. Marshals Service’s Southwest Investigative Fugitive Team (USMS-SWIFT) arrested Jensen in the firearms case on May 16, 2016, while Jensen was on supervised release from a prior federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.  The federal court had issued a warrant for Jensen’s arrest on May 4, 2016, based on a petition filed by the U.S. Probation Office to revoke his supervised release.  According to the petition, Jensen had been released from the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on April 25, 2016, after completing an 84-month prison sentence, with directions to report to his probation officer and a halfway house at which he was to reside for up to six-months.  The arrest warrant issued after Jensen failed to report either to his probation officer or to the halfway house, and Jensen was in possession of a firearm and ammunition when the USMS-SWIFT arrested him. 

 

Jensen was indicted in the firearms case on June 14, 2016.  The indictment stated that  Jensen was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition on May 16, 2016, because he previously had been convicted of several felony offenses in the state courts of New Mexico in addition to his federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.  On Feb. 27, 2017,

Jensen pled guilty to the indictment and admitted that he unlawfully was in possession of a firearm and ammunition on May 16, 2016, when the USMS-SWIFT arrested him for violating the conditions of his supervised release. 

 

Jensen currently is scheduled for sentencing in the firearms case on Oct. 25, 2017, and faces a statutory mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years of imprisonment based on his status as an armed career criminal.  If convicted on the assault charge, Jensen faces a maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison.

 

The assault case was investigated by the USMS, and the firearms case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of ATF and the USMS-SWIFT.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Eva Mae Fontanez is prosecuting the two cases under a federal anti-violence initiative that targets “the worst of the worst” offenders for federal prosecution.  Under this initiative, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal law enforcement agencies work with New Mexico’s District Attorneys and state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to target violent or repeat offenders primarily based on their prior criminal convictions for federal prosecution with the goal of removing repeat offenders from communities in New Mexico for as long as possible..