Woman faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted

Brittania Navaho, 28, is facing federal charges for the alleged straw purchase of a firearm.

A Shiprock woman was indicted Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on federal firearm charges.

Brittania Navaho, 28 was arrested June 5 and faces a charge of a being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Navaho is accused of the straw purchase a firearm, or purchasing the gun for someone else, and then that gun “was later used in a murder following a violent daylong crime spree in Gallup,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

It is alleged that Navaho knew the “person intended to use the firearm in furtherance of a felony,” according to the indictment.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting this case as part of the Department of Justice’s Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Regional Outreach Program, according to the news release which states the program “aims to aid in the prevention and response to missing or murdered Indigenous people through the resolution of MMIP cases and communication, coordination, and collaboration with federal, tribal, state, and local partners.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Eliot Neal also is prosecuting the case under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in June 2022.

“The act is the first federal statute specifically designed to target the unlawful trafficking and straw-purchasing of firearms,” the news release states.

Navaho has been ordered to remain in federal custody while awaiting her trial, which has not been scheduled.

If convicted she faces up to 25 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

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