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A federal grand jury has indicted a New Mexico man on assault and carjacking prices in reference to the 2021 disappearance of a Native American girl whose case has helped to lift consciousness about lacking folks and unsolved slayings in Indian Nation.
The indictment naming Preston Henry Tolth, 23, was unsealed Tuesday. He’s scheduled to look earlier than a federal Justice of the Peace Friday in northern Arizona for a detention listening to and formal arraignment.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Tolth assaulted Ella Mae Begay, a Navajo girl who was 62 on the time, took her pickup truck and drove it throughout state strains. Begay has not been discovered.
“This indictment is a vital first step in figuring out the reality about what occurred to an aged sufferer on the Navajo Nation,” U.S. Lawyer Gary Restaino of Arizona mentioned in an announcement, stressing that the investigation was ongoing.
Begay’s truck was seen the morning of June 15, 2021, leaving her house within the distant group of Sweetwater on the Navajo Nation, not removed from the place Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet.
The FBI supplied a $5,000 reward for “data resulting in the identification, arrest, and conviction of the particular person or individuals answerable for the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay.” The FBI mentioned Begay was driving a grey 2005 Ford F-150 with a damaged tailgate when she went lacking.
A yr after Begay disappeared, her niece started strolling from the Navajo Nation to Washington D.C. to deliver consideration to a decades-long epidemic of violence that has disproportionately affected Indigenous folks.
Cedar Attanasio / AP
Lawyer Darlene Gomez, who’s representing Begay’s household, mentioned in a social media submit that the indictment marked a bittersweet growth for members of the family. Gomez mentioned the household appreciates the prayers and assist from those that have adopted Begay’s case and shared her story in hopes of bringing her house.
The investigation into Begay’s disappearance is a part of the U.S. Division of Justice’s efforts to deal with instances involving lacking and slain Native Individuals. Navajo Nation authorities had beforehand recognized Tolth as an individual of curiosity within the case.
Luke Mulligan, a federal public defender for Tolth, declined to touch upon the case Tuesday.
New Mexico court docket data present Tolth has a legal historical past that features prices of aggravated battery, resisting arrest, residential housebreaking and drug possession that date again to 2019. He already was in custody pending the result of a 2022 case during which he was accused of stealing a person’s pockets whereas armed with some sort of sharp weapon, court docket data present.
Begay’s members of the family have met with U.S. Inside Secretary Deb Haaland, who just lately joined Justice Division officers in internet hosting the primary in-person session of the Not Invisible Act Fee in Washington. The fee shall be holding subject hearings throughout the U.S. this yr because it develops suggestions for stopping and responding to violence affecting tribal communities.
There are roughly 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native lacking individuals included within the Nationwide Crime Info Middle Database, in response to the Division of the Inside.
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