Man sentenced for stabbing woman on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Montana

GREAT FALLS — A Hays man who admitted to stabbing a woman in the back was sentenced Thursday to 15 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

Tyrell Andrew Laroque, 34, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a dating partner.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. The court allowed Laroque to self-report to the Bureau of Prisons.

In court documents, the government alleged that in October 2021 on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Laroque attacked a woman and stabbed her in the back as she lay on a bed in a Hays residence. After drinking heavily at his home, and for unknown reasons, Laroque became combative, got into a fight with a relative and held a knife to another relative’s throat while threatening to cut him. After the two relatives left, Laroque found the victim in a basement bedroom and stabbed her in the back, leaving a wound three inches deep. Fort Belknap Tribal Police arrested Laroque and recovered a folding knife from his person.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery K. Starnes prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI and Fort Belknap Tribal Police.