A Pine Hill man has admitted to sexually assaulting a child at a church service on the Navajo Reservation.

Tony Jake Jr., 75, pleaded guilty Nov. 13 to a charge of abusive sexual contact while in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

Court records show that on May 28, 2022 a 7-year-old girl told her mother “she had been sexually assaulted by a man she did not know during a church service.”

Agents from the Farmington Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office responded and began interviewing individuals who say the child that day.

“One witness reported that they had noticed (the child) was not with the other children and when they went to find her, they found her with Jake and that (the child) was visibly upset,” according to court records.

In the plea agreement, “Jake admitted that he had approached (the child), that he touched her inappropriately and that she was upset by his conduct,” a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.

Jake is not being held in jail, while awaiting sentencing, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office says he faces up to life in prison, followed by five years of parole.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Bell is prosecuting the case.