A 49-year-old Lummi Nation man was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in federal prison for strangling and beating his former intimate partner.
A 49-year-old Lummi Nation man was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in federal prison for strangling and beating his former intimate partner during a 2025 assault on the Lummi Nation Indian Reservation.
Marc Cagey Oreiro was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle after pleading guilty in June to the assault, according to the U.S. Justice Department for the Western District of Washington.
U.S. District Judge Lauren King also ordered Oreiro to serve three years of federal supervision after his release and pay a $50,000 fine.
“Non-fatal strangulation is among the most dangerous of domestic assaults,” King told Oreiro at sentencing. “This is about as serious as it gets.”
According to court records, Oreiro attacked the woman May 23, 2025, in the master bedroom of their home on the reservation. Prosecutors said he pushed her onto a bed and strangled her with his hands and forearm, interfering with her ability to breathe.
Oreiro also punched the woman multiple times in the head, back, stomach, side and ear, struck her ribs with his knee and knelt on her chest, according to the Justice Department. He repeatedly threatened to kill her.
The woman later told investigators that Oreiro attempted to sexually assault her after the attack.
Lummi Police officers went to the home after a housemate called police. Prosecutors said Oreiro fought with officers when they found him during a search of the residence.
Officers found the woman crying in a bedroom closet where Oreiro had told her to hide, according to the Justice Department. She was taken to a local hospital and treated for injuries that included bruising to her face, ears and neck.
The woman told law enforcement that Oreiro had assaulted her about 10 previous times that had not been reported. Oreiro also has a tribal court conviction for assaulting the same woman.
Prosecutors sought the five-year sentence, arguing Oreiro posed serious safety concerns for the victim and had failed to follow court-imposed conditions, including no-contact orders.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said Oreiro's history of domestic violence dates to a conviction in 1995, when he was 18.
“His incidents of domestic violence assault have worsened since then, but Mr. Oreiro has spent little time behind bars,” Floyd said. He said the five-year sentence, which was above the guideline range, and the supervision that follows are intended to “break the cycle of violence.”
Oreiro was initially charged in tribal court. Following an FBI investigation, he was charged federally by criminal complaint. A grand jury indicted him June 25, 2025, and he pleaded guilty June 6, 2026.
He has been held at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac since his federal arrest June 4, 2025.
At sentencing, King also addressed the victim, calling her “brave” and saying no one deserved to be treated as she had been. The judge said the woman's decision to report the violence may have prevented other women from becoming victims.
“Based upon Mr. Oreiro’s history, it is unlikely this pattern of violence would have stopped without intervention from the justice system,” King said.
