Man is beaten unconscious at friend’s house, then he wakes up and walks home, feds say

A 37-year-old man will go to prison after being accused of beating another man unconscious in New Mexico, federal officials said.

The victim was hanging out at his friend’s house on Mescalero Apache land in May 2022 when Dennett Jerome Chee, a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and another man came over, according to a March 26 news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.

Chee and the man are accused of “repeatedly striking” the victim in his back and face, officials said.

The victim fell unconscious, and the beating stopped, prosecutors said.

Eventually, the victim woke up and walked back to his home about 200 yards away, where his mother called the police, and he was taken to Lincoln County Medical Center just north of the reservation, officials said.

Then the man was transferred to the University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, officials said.

The man was hospitalized for almost a week with fractures to his spine and face and hemorrhaging in his nose, prosecutors said.

The beating stemmed from Chee blaming the victim for the 2021 death of his brother from alcohol poisoning, according to the criminal complaint.

McClatchy News reached out to Chee’s attorney for comment on March 26 but did not immediately receive a response.

Police saw Chee, carrying what looked like a baseball bat, and the other man walking down the road near where the assault happened shortly after an ambulance took the victim to the hospital, officials said.

After a brief chase, Chee was arrested, officials said.

Chee was sentenced to nine years in prison after he pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury, officials said.

After that, he will face three years of supervised release, police said.

The Mescalero Apache Reservation is in southeastern New Mexico, about a 195-mile drive southeast from Albuquerque.

This story was originally published March 27, 2024 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Man is beaten unconscious at friend’s house, then he wakes up and walks home, feds say."