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HEBER CITY — A New Mexico woman known by the moniker "Hitler" has been ordered to serve less than a year in the Wasatch County Jail for stabbing a man at this summer's Rainbow Family Gathering outside Heber City.
Leilani Novak-Garcia faced up to five years in prison for her conviction on one count of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. On Wednesday, Judge Roger Griffin imposed the maximum prison sentence, then suspended it and ordered Novak-Garcia to serve 300 days in jail.
Novak-Garcia, 33, was one of an estimated 8,000 people who attended this year's Rainbow Family of Living Light gathering in the Uinta National Forest east of Heber City. The counterculture group gathers in a different national forest each summer to pray for world peace, according to its unofficial website.
On June 23, Forest Service rangers contacted Wasatch County sheriff's deputies about "a disturbance" at the Rainbow Family site. Rangers told deputies they heard someone screaming threats to kill another person.
Investigators determined that three people had approached Novak-Garcia's vehicle at the Rainbow Family site about 1:30 a.m. and asked her to stop repeatedly honking the vehicle's horn. Witnesses said she had been honking the horn for about 30 minutes.
When Novak-Garcia refused to stop, one member of the trio — 45-year-old Neil Sparling of Salt Lake City — tried to disable the horn, charging documents state. Investigators said Novak-Garcia responded by striking one person with a tire iron. She then stabbed Sparling in the head and shoulder with a knife, the charges state.
Sparling was briefly hospitalized for treatment of his injuries. The person who was struck with the tire iron refused to cooperate with the investigation, prosecutors said. A third person also declined to help investigators, court records show.
In a letter to the judge, Novak-Garcia said has reflected on the incident more than once since her arrest.
"I have asked myself over and over again how someone like me, who stands for goodness and is so kindhearted and giving, could possibly hurt a fellow human being so morosely," Novak-Garcia wrote, adding that she is "more than deeply remorseful" for her actions.
"I am disgusted and ashamed," she wrote.
Novak-Garcia will receive credit for the jail time she has already served. Griffin also ordered her to pay a $750 fine, serve two years' probation and complete any treatment recommended after a mental health evaluation.
