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RANDLETT, Uintah County — A federal grand jury has indicted a man in a killing who is already facing charges in Ute Tribal Court.
Trent Sowsonicut, 27, of Fort Duchesne, was indicted Wednesday on charges of murder in the second-degree while within Indian Country, and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime.
On Aug. 13, Leroy Swift Eagle Murray, 28, was killed while on the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation. That charge will now be dismissed in favor of the federal charge.
Sowsonicut was charged in Ute Tribal Court with murder and obstruction of justice.
No other details about the shooting have been released since the incident happened.
If convicted, Sowsonicut could be sentenced to up to life in prison for the murder charge. The penalty for the federal firearm charge is a minimum 10-year sentence which must be served consecutive to any sentence imposed for the murder charge.
