Warm Springs man gets nearly 6 years in fatal DUII crash
A 35-year-old Warm Springs man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in federal prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges in a 2017 drunken-driving crash that killed two men.
Harold Blackwolf Jr. was sentenced in a Portland federal courtroom to 71 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty on Feb. 27 to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of felon in possession of a firearm, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, on Sept. 28, 2017, Blackwolf was at a friend’s house on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. While under the influence of alcohol, prosecutors said, Blackwolf left his friend’s house and got into his Dodge Durango SUV, then drove away at a high rate of speed with his headlights off. As he left, he struck two adult men who were in the road, killing both.
Blackwolf, a convicted felon, was arrested on April 20, 2018 and found to be in possession of a Taurus .38 special revolver. prosecutors said.
A restitution hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown will be held at a later date.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Warm Springs Tribal Police Department. It was prosecuted by Paul Maloney, Benjamin Tolkoff and Craig Gabriel, assistant U.S. attorneys for the District of Oregon.
On March 3, 1994, the FBI initiated “Operation Safe Trails” with the Navajo Department of Law Enforcement in Flagstaff, Arizona. The operation, which would later evolve into the Safe Trails Task Force (STTF) Program, unites FBI and other federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in a collaborative effort to combat the growth of crime in Indian Country.
STTFs allow participating agencies to combine limited resources and increase investigative coordination in Indian Country to target violent crime, drugs, gangs, and gaming violations.
