A 31-year-old Tucson man was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release after admitting to abusive sexual contact with a child under 12 near Hickiwan, Arizona, on the Tohono O'odham Nation. Eric Garcia, an enrolled member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, pleaded guilty in the case before a federal judge in Tucson.
According to FBI Phoenix, investigators determined the abuse occurred sometime between November 11, 2014, and November 11, 2016. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew C. Cassell following a joint investigation between the Tohono O'odham Police Department and the FBI Phoenix Division's Tucson Office, according to the Department of Justice.
The case landed in federal court rather than state court because of where it happened. Under the Major Crimes Act, federal courts hold jurisdiction over serious felonies, including sexual and child abuse offenses, committed on tribal land, according to the Office for Victims of Crime. That framework dates back to 1885, when Congress passed the law following the Supreme Court's Ex Parte Crow Dog decision, establishing that the FBI leads major federal felony investigations in Indian Country while tribal police serve as the primary local responders, per the Department of Justice.
What the Statute Covers
Garcia was charged under federal sexual abuse statutes that address abusive sexual contact involving a child under 12, a category of offense covering non-penetrative sexual touching against vulnerable victims. Those statutes carry potential penalties up to life imprisonment along with mandatory sex offender registration and extended supervised release terms, the Department of Justice notes.
Because parole was eliminated in the federal system for offenses committed after 1987, Garcia will not be eligible for early release in the way some state inmates might be. Federal inmates must serve at least 85 percent of their imposed sentence, with good conduct credit capped at 15 percent, meaning Garcia is expected to spend at least 16 years behind bars before his lifetime of supervised release begins.
A Vast Reservation, A Small District
Hickiwan is one of 11 political districts that make up the Tohono O'odham Nation, sitting in the western portion of the reservation near Ajo and the Barry M. Goldwater Range, with a local population of roughly 800 residents, according to information from Luke Air Force Base. The reservation itself spans about 2.8 million acres across Pima, Pinal, and Maricopa counties — a land base roughly the size of Connecticut — and counts nearly 30,000 enrolled members, making it the second-largest reservation by land area in Arizona, per the Indian Health Service.
That scale underscores the logistical challenge facing the small number of tribal and federal officers responsible for investigating major crimes across the reservation. Garcia's case is one of several recent federal prosecutions targeting historical child sexual abuse allegations on the same reservation.
Part of a Pattern of Federal Cases
In July 2026, 39-year-old Mario JB Juan of Sells pleaded guilty to federal charges of abusive sexual contact of a child under 12 stemming from a 2015 incident while he was employed at a tribal Head Start preschool program; he faces up to life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for October, the Department of Justice reported. Hoodline covered Juan's guilty plea last month.
In a separate Southern Arizona case, 30-year-old Johney Lynn Hammond, an enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, was sentenced in May 2026 to 18 years in federal prison for abusive sexual contact involving two children under nine, also prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tucson. Together with Garcia's sentence, the cases point to consistent multi-decade federal prison terms for child sexual abuse convictions tied to tribal communities in the region.
These prosecutions fall under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 that brings together federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement to combat child exploitation through joint investigations, according to the agency. Hoodline has previously reported on other cases connected to the Tohono O'odham Nation, including a September 2025 federal indictment against a man accused of attempted enticement of a minor, and a January 2026 sentencing of an Arizona woman for providing fatal drugs to a child on the reservation.
