A repeat domestic abuser from Warm Springs, Oregon, Alfred Dee Kaulaity, 47, has been sentenced to federal time after a series of assaults on his girlfriend, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. With a track record of seven prior convictions for similar offenses, Kaulaity will now face 66 months in federal lockup, stacking up a sentence that runs consecutive to a 78-month stretch for a state domestic violence conviction handed down in Jefferson County, Oregon.
Kaulaity's history of domestic violence, spanning across 17 years and involving multiple victims, was put to a halt as the victim in this case "courageously turned in her abuser to stop his dangerous pattern of violence," Natalie Wight, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, said in a statement obtained by the Department of Justice. Aubree M. Schwartz, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Portland Field Office, added, "The FBI fully investigates domestic violence with intense commitment to the safety and confidentiality of victims and encourages reporting of these heinous crimes to bring offenders to justice and protect others from harm."
The incident that led to the latest charges occurred on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in December 2020. Kaulaity and his girlfriend were at the Indian Head Casino when he assaulted her for speaking to another man, leaving a scar on the bridge of her nose. Fleeing after the assault, they ended up in northern California, where the girlfriend bought separate flights to ensure her escape and reporting the abuse in Portland.
Details from the case, recorded in court documents, allege Kaulaity kidnapped, assaulted, and nearly killed his girlfriend during the ordeal, a narrative corroborated by the victim's accounts and airline employees who reported her injuries upon their arrival. Six months later, his history of violence caught up when the same woman, in an act of brave defiance, identified Kaulaity to Jefferson County Sheriff deputies as her assailant following another attack; "Domestic violence is rarely an isolated incident," Schwartz noted, highlighting the cyclical nature of these crimes.
On December 1, 2023, Kaulaity pleaded guilty to federal charges of domestic assault by a habitual offender. His indictment and subsequent conviction ensure that Kaulaity's pattern of abuse meets with the consequence of the law—paying more than $4,900 in restitution and entering a supervised release period after his prison time concludes.
Domestic abuse casts a long and harrowing shadow on communities and individuals alike, with too many stories ending in silence and hidden trauma. If you or anyone you know may be suffering in a similar cycle of abuse, reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for help and guidance out of the darkness and into the protection of care and legal intervention.
