Blanding man given probation in Four Corners artifact sting

SALT LAKE CITY — A Blanding man arrested in last year's Four Corners artifact sting was spared prison time Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson sentenced 56-year-old Aubry Patterson to 36 months' probation and ordered him to keep off public and tribal lands for three years.

Patterson was charged last year with unlawfully taking American Indian artifacts from public land and selling them to a federal informant.

In audio recordings of the transactions, Patterson made remarks that he would shoot someone rather than go to jail.

Thursday, however, both the defense and prosecution said Patterson did not pose a threat.

Still, prosecutor Richard McKelvie said investigators found a "great wealth" of artifacts at Patterson's home last year. The Blanding man engaged in a pattern of artifact hunting "over the decades," McKelvie said in asking for a prison sentence.

"I would just like to say I'm sorry for the crimes I've committed and I will never do them again," Patterson told the court. "I would like to apologize to the United States government and to Native Americans for any archeological damage I have done."

Benson said he ultimately believed Patterson had "a lot of good" in him.

The judge said he was unusually swayed by letters the man's daughter sent to the court.

Even without sending Patterson to prison, Benson said last year's artifact sting, which netted about 24 arrests, made an important point.

"I would hope that this accomplished the very laudable goal of getting the word out, to a culture that hadn't realized before, that this is a serious wrongdoing and it will be vigorously enforced," Benson said.

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