Santiago Luis Valencia Jr.
Introduction
Santiago Luis Valencia Jr., a 36-year-old Tucson man, was sentenced in August 2026 to 87 months in federal prison for voluntary manslaughter in the death of a man he assaulted at a gathering on the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s reservation . Chief United States District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps imposed the sentence after Valencia pleaded guilty. On June 15, 2024, Valencia initiated a physical altercation with the victim at a private residence on the Pascua Yaqui Pueblo; the victim suffered a head injury in the fight and died the following day. Both men were enrolled members of the tribe.
Background Information
The case was investigated by the FBI Phoenix Division’s Tucson office together with the Pascua Yaqui Police Department, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in Tucson . Because the killing occurred in Indian country, it was prosecuted federally, with the case number CR-24-04265-TUC-JGZ before Chief Judge Zipps. The release contains no prior-history information about Valencia and no description of what precipitated the June 2024 altercation — the facts it states are the date, the location, the fight he started, and the death that followed it.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
On June 15, 2024, Valencia assaulted the victim at a private residence on the Pascua Yaqui Tribe after initiating a physical altercation. During the fight, the victim suffered a head injury that resulted in his death the following day . The admitted sequence — Valencia starting the fight, the blow, the death a day later — is what his voluntary-manslaughter plea resolved, an admission that the killing was unlawful but without the state of mind that first-degree murder requires.
The two-year gap between the killing and the sentencing covers the investigation and the resolution of the case by plea; the release does not describe any trial or suppression litigation along the way, and this page does not invent one.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The release is a straight agency announcement with no quoted officials, no victim-family statement, and no comment from Valencia or his defense . The consequences it records are the 87-month custodial sentence and the concurrent supervision that follows a federal conviction of this kind. The joint FBI and tribal-police investigation produced the federal case, and the sentence stands as the outcome of that work. No related charges against anyone else appear in the release.
Current Status
Valencia’s conviction stands by plea to voluntary manslaughter; the 87-month term was imposed by Chief Judge Zipps in August 2026, as announced by the August 19, 2026, release . The release records no supervised-release term explicitly, no fine, and no restitution, so this page records only the custodial sentence. No appeal is noted. He remains in federal custody to serve the term.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The manslaughter conviction gives Valencia a permanent homicide record and removes him from his community for more than seven years. Both he and the victim were enrolled members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and the killing took place inside that community at a private residence — facts that make the crime’s social consequences local and personal in a way the federal court record only gestures at. The release identifies no occupation or family circumstances, so the documented impact is the prison term itself and the admitted responsibility for a death that came one day after a fight he started.
Sources
- DOJ press release, “Tucson Man Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Voluntary Manslaughter,” U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, August 19, 2026 source