A Dulce man pleaded guilty to a single charge of assault by a habitual offender after choking his girlfriend in 2025.
Tyler Vigil, 32, pleaded guilty to the single charge on May 26, over a year after the April 3, 2025 incident.
Vigil faces a maximum sentence of five years on the charge.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence within the sentencing guideline calculated by the court, but that sentencing guideline does not appear to be calculated yet.
As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a charge of assault on an intimate partner.
Court documents give no evidence for the habitual offender part of the charge and state court records show no previous convictions.
A grand jury indicted Vigil on the charge on Nov. 18, but that document has not been entered into the court record by the federal court clerk’ office. A request to enter it into the record is pending.
While Vigil was initially ordered to be held without bail on Nov. 25, he was released to the La Pasada Halfway House on Dec. 30.
Vigil has requested to be allowed to attend a rehab program pending sentencing. No order has been set on that request, and no hearing has been set, although prosecutors do not oppose it.
Sentencing is set for Aug. 27 in federal district court in Albuquerque.
The only court record that states what happened is the plea deal.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Jicarilla Apache Police Department investigated the case.
Per the plea deal, Vigil admitted he choked his girlfriend, who he lives with and has a child with, on April 3, 2025.
Both of them are enrolled members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the attack happened within the boundaries of the Nation.