New Mexico man in Utah less than 6 hours is arrested in aggravated assault case

A New Mexico man who arrived in Utah less than six hours earlier for work was arrested Wednesday and accused of attacking and severely injuring a man's face in Roosevelt.

A New Mexico man who arrived in Utah less than six hours earlier for work was arrested Wednesday and accused of attacking and severely injuring a man's face in Roosevelt. (Rafa Jodar, Shutterstock)


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ROOSEVELT — A man who police say was in Utah less than six hours has been arrested in eastern Utah and accused of attacking a man with a bolt from the drilling rig.

Ruben Yazzie, 43, was booked into the Duchesne County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated assault resulting in serious injury and intoxication.

Roosevelt police were called Wednesday to an apartment where they found a man "sitting on the couch with blood covering his face and with gash marks in his head and face," according to a police booking affidavit.

He told officers that he was sleeping on the couch when "he was hit in the head with a bolt from the drilling rig," the affidavit states, and woke up to see Yazzie walking away. The bolt was located by officers in the garage with blood on it.

The injuries suffered by the victim "required him to be shipped to Salt Lake to a hospital with plastic surgeon to reconstruct his face," the affidavit says.

Police also noted that "Ruben just came to the area to work on a rig and had been here less than six hours when this incident took place. Ruben is from New Mexico."

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Pat Reavy, KSLPat Reavy
Pat Reavy interned with KSL in 1989 and has been a full-time journalist for either KSL or Deseret News since 1991. For the past 25 years, he has worked primarily the cops and courts beat.
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