McRenoisen Morales Sagina

Introduction

McRenoisen Morales Sagina, 57, of St. Michaels, Arizona, was sentenced in June 2026 by U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa to 31 years in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for repeatedly sexually abusing a 17-year-old on the Navajo Nation Reservation . A federal jury convicted Sagina on March 18, 2026, on six counts: one count of Sexual Abuse by Threat, two counts of Abusive Sexual Contact by Threat, and three counts of Sexual Abuse Without Consent. The evidence at trial showed the abuse occurred between January 2025 and March 10, 2025, in St. Michaels, where Sagina lived and where he served as a medicine man on the Navajo Nation Reservation .

Background Information

Sagina is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, and his standing in the case was unusual: he served as a medicine man, a spiritual role on the Nation, and the trial evidence showed he weaponized that position against his teenage victim . As part of the abuse, Sagina threatened the victim with witchcraft and violence — threats that carried the weight of his ceremonial standing in the community. His threats included pointing a shotgun at the victim to make her take her clothes off. The case was investigated by the FBI Phoenix Division’s Gallup office together with the Navajo Nation Criminal Investigator’s Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Genevieve A. Ozark and Tracy Van Buskirk of the District of Arizona prosecuted it .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. A federal jury convicted Sagina on six sexual abuse counts for abusing a 17-year-old under threats of witchcraft, violence, and a shotgun; he was sentenced to 31 years in prison.

Between January 2025 and March 10, 2025, Sagina sexually abused a 17-year-old on the Navajo Nation Reservation in St. Michaels, Arizona — a sustained course of conduct, not a single incident, proven at trial through the testimony and evidence the jury heard . The threats that framed the abuse were calibrated to a child’s fears and a community’s beliefs: Sagina threatened the victim with witchcraft and with violence, invoking the supernatural authority of his medicine-man role, and he pointed a shotgun at her to force her to take her clothes off. The six counts the jury returned on March 18, 2026 — Sexual Abuse by Threat, Abusive Sexual Contact by Threat, and Sexual Abuse Without Consent — tracked the structure of that coercive conduct.

The June 2026 sentencing converted the trial verdict into 31 years in federal prison, with 10 years of supervised release to follow — one of the longer sexual abuse sentences imposed in the District of Arizona’s Indian Country docket, and one that at Sagina’s age of 57 will keep him in custody past age 85 .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced the conviction and sentence in a release published under its Indian Country Law and Justice topic, recording the six-count jury verdict and the 31-year term . The release records no public statement from Sagina and no defense claim of innocence after the verdict. The consequences are custodial and supervisory: 31 years in federal prison — a term that removes a 57-year-old offender from the community for the rest of his actuarial life — plus a decade of supervised release afterward. The prosecution pairs the FBI’s Gallup office with the Navajo Nation Criminal Investigator’s Office, the standing partnership that investigates major crimes on the Nation .

Current Status

Sagina stands convicted on all six counts by jury verdict of March 18, 2026, and is serving a 31-year prison sentence followed by 10 years of supervised release, imposed by Judge Diane J. Humetewa . The case number is CR-25-08052-PCT-DJH in the District of Arizona, under release number 2026-104_Sagina. The release records no appeal, so the verdict and sentence stand as the final public disposition as of this writing. Any post-conviction motion would be recorded in the district court docket, and none is described in the department’s announcement .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Sagina’s spiritual role is gone: a medicine man convicted of terrorizing a 17-year-old with witchcraft threats and a shotgun has forfeited the standing that made the threats credible, and the 31-year sentence means he will die in custody or as a very old man under supervision . The trial record — the shotgun, the witchcraft threats, the three-month course of abuse of a child — is the public answer to whatever community trust his ceremonial position once carried. For the victim, the verdict and sentence are the criminal justice system’s acknowledgment that the abuse happened and that the man who invoked spiritual authority to commit it will spend the rest of his life answering for it .

Sources

• DOJ press release, “Navajo Man Sentenced to 31 Years in Prison for Sexual Abuse,” U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, June 23, 2026 source