Naschitti man sentenced in 2021 kidnapping case
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A federal judge sentenced a Naschitti man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy. The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that 32-year-old Elias Viola received 30 years in prison.
Court records say on September 16, 2021, Viola and his then-girlfriend Shannon Etsitty made a plan to lure John Doe to a location in Gallup under the guise of a meetup with Etsitty. Viola sent a text from Etsitty’s phone propositioning Doe, who agreed to meet.
Etsitty picked Doe up and drove him to a location where Viola and a third man attacked Doe in the vehicle with a baseball bat and stabbed him with a screwdriver. The three then hid Doe’s body under some nearby brush before returning hours later to move Doe’s body to a field near Etsitty’s mother’s house.
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The Doe’s body was found by a civilian on September 23, 2021, following a weeklong community search. The Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) determined Doe’s death was homicide by multiple injuries.
Investigators identified Etsitty as the last person Doe communicated with and determined that, shortly after those communications, she and Viola were involved in a single-vehicle crash near Doe’s apartment. The crash site ended up being several miles from where Doe’s body was found.
After search warrants were executed for Etsitty and Viola’s cell phone and Facebook records, Viola was confirmed as being in the area where a missing shoe of Doe’s was found. FBI agents found Viola’s car on November 16, 2021.
Viola admitted to the FBI to attacking Doe and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping on September 18, 2023. Etsitty pled guilty to the same charge. Her sentencing hasn’t happened yet.
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