RENO, Nev. (AP) - A federal court jury in Reno has found a tribe member guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the December 2014 stabbing death of his wife at their home in the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation on the Nevada-Oregon state line.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Nevada said Wednesday that 45-year-old Nelson Ray McKee could face up to 15 years in federal prison at sentencing May 15.
Defense attorney Michael Kennedy said the jury acquitted McKee of murder, and said he’ll seek a lesser sentence for the manslaughter charge. Kennedy said he’ll also appeal the conviction.
Trial took six days in U.S. District Court, which has criminal case jurisdiction in Indian country.
McKee is a member of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.
His wife, Cheryl Lynn Jackson, was a member of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone.
Neighbors called 911 after Jackson went to their house with a stab wound to the chest. Police reported finding McKee extremely intoxicated, with knives, whiskey bottles and blood in the kitchen.
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This version adds the slain wife’s name, Cheryl Lynn Jackson.
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