Man brutally attacked longtime girlfriend and left her for dead in wheelbarrow, feds say

A man in New Mexico was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison after being accused of attacking his longtime girlfriend and leaving her unconscious body in a wheelbarrow, federal officials said.

Evan Haceesa, 29, of Nageezi on the Navajo Nation, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder in connection with the August 2022 killing of his girlfriend of 10 years, according to an Aug. 23 news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for District of New Mexico.

Haceesa is accused of attacking the woman, referred to in the release as Jane Doe, at his dad’s house on the Navajo Nation, officials said.

“What brought about this tragedy is multi-faceted; however, alcohol and jealousy seem to be the prime movers,” Haceesa’s lawyer, Martin Juarez, said in a sentencing memo on behalf of his client.

McClatchy News reached out to Juarez on Aug. 25 and was awaiting a response.

The woman told Haceesa “she should have stayed with her last boyfriend,” and then he started attacking her while drunk, according to the sentencing memo.

The man punched the mother of his two children “continuously” until she fell unconscious, the release said.

He’s also accused of kicking her body in the attack that lasted between 10 and 15 minutes, federal officials said. Haceesa then put the woman’s body in a wheelbarrow before going to bed, according to the release.

Navajo police responded to reports of domestic violence and arrived to find the woman “unclothed and unresponsive” in the wheelbarrow, the release said.

She was airlifted to San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington where she had surgery and was put on a ventilator, officials said.

She had blood and air in her abdomen, bleeding in her small intestines, a nose fracture and a partially collapsed lung, the release said.

After getting worse and undergoing two more surgeries, the woman died in September 2022, officials said.

After being released from prison, Haceesa will face five years of supervised release, officials said.

Nageezi is about 130 miles northwest of Albuquerque.