Hays woman sentenced to 22 months in prison for assault resulting in serious bodily injury

GREAT FALLS - A Hays woman who beat a man so badly he later died from his injuries was sentenced to 22 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Racicot said.

Heavenlee Drewann Sears, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury in November 2025.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.

The government alleged in court documents that Fort Belknap law enforcement responded to John Doe's house on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation around 6:00 AM on September 30, 2023. When the officer entered the house, he saw Doe on the kitchen floor, bloodied and unconscious. Doe's daughter, Sears, and Alta Chandler were at the house, along with a relative of both Doe and Sears who had called 911.

Emergency medical services responded to the scene to transport Doe to the hospital. Body camera from the medical response shows Doe's audibly labored breathing, along with his swollen and bloody face. Sears and Chandler are visible on the body camera lingering around the area where Doe had been laying, and the tribal officer repeatedly admonished Chandler to stop trying to wipe up blood. A peppermint schnapps bottle is depicted at the scene on the body camera.

Sears was arrested later that day and was wearing a bloody sweater and pants when she was taken into custody. When Sears spoke with the FBI, she told them she and Chandler had been drinking and driving around the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and their evening had included the purchase of a bottle of peppermint schnapps. Eventually, Sears admitted she and Chandler had gone to Doe's house while they were heavily intoxicated and, once there, beat him. Sears hit Doe in the head with the bottle of peppermint schnapps, and Chandler hit Does with her fists while he was on the ground.

Doe was taken to Fort Belknap Indian Health Services. He was unresponsive and breathing erratically. His admission records state his ears and face were bruised and swollen, his nose was lacerated, his upper lip was lacerated, and there was a human bite mark on his forehead. There were also bite marks to his left wrist and left upper chest. After he was intubated, Doe was life flighted to a higher level of care.

On October 18, 2023, Doe was admitted to the Long-Term Care Hospital in Billings, Montana. He was diagnosed with traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. He was largely unresponsive to stimuli and completely nonverbal due to his traumatic brain injury. Doe died on December 11, 2023.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted the case. The FBI and Fort Belknap Law Enforcement Services conducted the investigation.

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