Court docs outline disturbing abuse during monthlong captivity

Court docs outline disturbing abuse during monthlong captivity


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WEST JORDAN — As new charges are pending against a man accused of kidnapping, drugging and beating a woman in his house for more than a month, new court documents reveal disturbing details of abuse the victim says she also suffered.

Albert Tony Yazzie, 29, of West Jordan, was arrested Nov. 14 for investigation of kidnapping a victim for substantial time, aggravated assault, damaging a phone and failing to stop at the command of a law enforcer. He is being held in the Utah State Prison, where he was sent after his arrest because he allegedly violated his parole.

For more than a month, a woman claims Yazzie beat her, injected her with drugs, told her what she was allowed to wear, controlled how and when she could use the bathroom, forced her to hit herself, and made her perform bizarre and disturbing acts, according to a newly unsealed search warrant affidavit filed in 3rd District Court.

Yazzie was paroled from prison on Sept. 16. Three days later, a woman who had a prior relationship with Yazzie went to his West Jordan house. She told police that “everything was good for the first 10 or so days, and described it as a honeymoon phase,” the warrant states.

The problems began when Yazzie found a conversation the woman had had with another man on Facebook.

“(The woman) denied anything happened between them, but when Albert found out, he grabbed her and body slammed her,” according to the warrant. From that point on, Yazzie went through all of the woman’s messages on her phone and social media.

“Albert then reviewed (her) Facebook page and made her hit herself for every ‘like’ that she gave to another male’s pictures, which (she) stated she had liked a lot of guy’s pictures and stated that she ‘messed up her face’ from how many times she had to hit herself,” the affidavit states. “She estimated that Albert made her hit herself over 300 times.”

During the month she was held captive, the woman said Yazzie kept her phone with him at all times, and “anytime her mother would reach out, he would hold the phone and make her respond with mean things toward her mother,” according to the warrant.

After Yazzie’s arrest, the woman provided police with a notebook that “contained the rules that she was required to live by while with Albert,” the warrant states. There were 10 handwritten “rules” that included making her refer to him as Daddy, and specifying that “showing my daddy love and affection is the best way to calm him down.” Other rules were sexually explicit.

Another list in her notebook was “things to never wear,” which included headbands, hair extensions, certain hair colors, and any clothing with aliens on it, the affidavit states.

“(She) stated that Albert told her what she could wear and would hit her hard,” according to the warrant. “She stated that he would not let her shower and would make her balance on her knees while naked. She stated that he would grab her by the hair, pulling her backward, and would then hit her repeatedly. She stated that one time he hit her so hard in the head that he broke his hand.”

Yazzie also “restricted her bathroom usage and mandated that she wear her hair a certain way. She stated that she was not allowed to use the bathroom or shower without Albert watching,” according to the warrant.

The woman also claimed Yazzie “injected her with suboxone so she wouldn’t be able to leave and stated that withdrawing from suboxone was worse than withdrawing from heroin” and “that it got to the point that he wouldn’t let her sleep and stated that they were high on meth all the time,” according to the warrant.

“(She) stated that Albert controlled when she slept and she stated that when she would fall asleep that Albert would begin to hit her repeatedly, stating that if she freaked out or screamed that he would hit her even more.”

The woman said she was also choked multiple times and made her “lick the carpet across the room to the door because she was ‘scum,’” the warrant states.

On Nov. 12, the woman said Yazzie took an Uber to see his parole officer. After leaving her alone in the car, the woman convinced the driver to take her to her parents’ house, the warrant states.

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When police went to his house the next day, Yazzie attempted to escape by running out the back door and jumping over fences into other yards. Police chased after him and used a Taser to bring him into custody.

During her time being held captive, Yazzie would record the woman on Snapchat “and told her to beg for him to punish her hard,” the warrant states. “He was making me beg him to punish me. ... I wasn’t allowed to cry,” she told police, the affidavit states.

Yazzie has a history of assaulting women, according to court records, and has been charged with unlawful detention in the past. In 2016 he was charged with several counts of aggravated assault in a domestic violence case. But the case was dismissed after a key witness did not show up to testify.

In 2015 he was sentenced to up to five years in prison on a theft conviction, court records state. He was sentenced to up to another five years in prison for witness tampering in 2018, which a judge ordered to run concurrently with another case, court records state.

Yazzie is related to Patrick Raymond Yazzie, 54, of West Jordan, who has been arrested for allegations of committing similar crimes and at one time lived in the same house as Albert Yazzie. He has been on either probation or parole with the Utah Department of Corrections, or incarcerated in the Utah State Prison, since 1985.

In 2015, Patrick Yazzie was charged with aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated assault after allegedly detaining and beating a woman in his house for three days. He pleaded no contest in that case in 2016 to an amended charge of attempted aggravated assault resulting in serious injury and was sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Patrick Yazzie has been incarcerated at the prison since 2015. He was also charged with rape and forcible sodomy in a separate case in 2014, but the case was dismissed after a key witness failed to show up for the preliminary hearing, according to court records. The same thing happened in another 2014 case when Yazzie again faced charges of aggravated kidnapping and assault charges. Prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges because of problems with witnesses.

Free and confidential help and support for victims and survivors of domestic violence is available 24/7 at 1-800-897-LINK (5465) or visiting udvc.org.

Domestic violence resources

Help for people in abusive relationships can be found by contacting:

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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