Suspect in Navajo woman's disappearance sentenced to 5 years for robbery after plea deal – Savannah Peters and Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
The only person ever charged in the unsolved 2021 disappearance of Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay, whose case became emblematic of a crisis fueled by disproportionately high rates of violence faced by Native Americans, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes in Phoenix on Friday accepted an agreement in which Preston Henry Tolth pleaded guilty to robbing Begay. Under the agreement, Tolth was credited with three years' time served and prosecutors dropped an assault charge and agreed not to prosecute him in the future if Begay's case develops.
The sentencing effectively closes a yearslong case that has been troubled by a lack of physical evidence and the suppression of a confession from Tolth, who also is Navajo.
During Friday's hearing, family members urged Rayes to reject the agreement. Begay's niece tearfully reiterated that they didn't want Tolth released without him leading investigators to Begay.
"A 62-year-woman is still nowhere to be found. No amount of time is enough if he won't tell us where she is," said Seraphine Warren, who later left the courtroom when it was apparent the judge was moving forward with the sentencing.
A beloved grandmother of nine and talented weaver of Navajo-style pictorial rugs, Begay was 62 when she vanished from her home in Sweetwater, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation in June 2021. Tolth's sentencing comes amid a week of awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement, which highlights the disproportionate number of Native Americans who are missing or have been killed.
In the years since Begay went missing, her family members have organized searches, pushed law enforcement for answers and even walked across the country to keep a public spotlight on her case. Advocates have compared Begay's case to that of Gabby Petito, a young white woman whose disappearance the same summer drew a frenzy of news coverage, social media attention and law enforcement action that ultimately led to the discovery of her remains in Wyoming.
Navajo Nation police and FBI agents identified Tolth as a suspect within days of her disappearance. Tolth, whose father was dating Begay's sister, initially denied any involvement. In a later interrogation, an FBI agent lied to Tolth, telling him police found Begay's truck and were processing evidence that would implicate him. In response, Tolth waived his right to remain silent and confessed to stealing Begay's pickup truck, beating her and leaving her for dead on the side of the road.
It is typically legal for U.S. law enforcement to fabricate evidence during interrogations. But Rayes ruled that in this instance, the FBI agent failed to "scrupulously honor" Tolth's initial refusal to speak and threw the confession out. A panel of appellate court judges agreed.
In the absence of that confession, U.S. Attorney Tracy Van Buskirk said Friday that the plea agreement was the government's best attempt at securing a reasonable sentence. Speaking about Tolth's effort to help investigators find Begay, Van Buskirk said Tolth wasn't familiar with the Sweetwater area and had been drinking alcohol on the night when he robbed her.
In court Friday, Begay's son Gerald Begay called the agreement a "failure."
"It shouldn't be that way," Gerald Begay told the judge.
Jane McClellan, a lawyer for Tolth, said her client acknowledged robbing Begay, showed officers where he thought he might have left her on the night of the crime and doesn't have further information.
"He is remorseful for his actions," McClellan said. "He has taken responsibility for his actions."
In an unusual move, Rayes rejected a previous plea agreement that called for Tolth to be released after three years of time served, saying it was overly lenient. Begay's family members had presented anguished testimony and said they would prefer to the case went to trial.
Navajo Nation public safety director Michael Henderson said finding Begay is still a priority for tribal law enforcement.
"One of the hindrances is that the federal investigation is still pending," Henderson said.
Once federal law enforcement officially close the case, Henderson said, Navajo Nation police may gain access to information that will aid their search.
Report finds 32,000 young people in New Mexico are not working or in school – Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico has about 32,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who do not work or go to school, according to a new report from the state Legislative Finance Committee.
These “disconnected” young people account for 13% of their age group in the state — the lowest number reported since 2008, according to the report, but still 2% higher than the national average.
Young people who don’t work or go to school report higher risks of drug use and mental health issues, lower educational attainment and increased involvement in the criminal justice system, the study found.
The LFC estimates disconnected youth cost New Mexico $623 million annually in lost tax revenue.
By their 30s, disconnected youth earn $38,400 less than their peers and are 52% less likely to report good health, the report said.
Reaching them can be difficult — young people become disconnected because of mental health or substance abuse issues, family conflict, low employment and educational outcomes, safety issues and housing instability, according to the report.
Of participants in the LFC survey, 82% said they would work or go to school if provided adequate support.
Youth Development Inc., a New Mexico nonprofit, offers job training, housing assistance, and mental and behavioral health services to young people and families. Despite falling numbers of disconnected youth state- and nationwide, the organization reports a growing number of people looking for services, said Concha Cordova, vice president of education, employment and training.
“We are definitely seeing more than what we can provide for,” Cordova said. “We go anywhere we feel disconnected youth are going to be — community centers, skate parks. We go out to them. We get a lot that come to our offices seeking guidance.”
YDI offers job training — students often go into careers in healthcare or trades, Cordova said.
“Our end goal is really to address barriers, help them complete their education, secondary and post secondary, gain credentials and certifications so that they can start a career,” she said.
The legislative report found a lack of education is one of the biggest indicators a young person will become disconnected. Almost half of the participants in the survey did not attend or complete high school.
Youth slipping through the cracks is a “huge problem nationally,” said Martha Ross, a senior fellow at Brookings who studies young people and the labor market.
“We just do not have good policy to ensure that everyone has some sort of guidance and capacity to make the transition from school to further school or to a career,” Ross said. “It’s really easy for young people to get lost.”
Though New Mexico’s high school graduation rate is at its highest in more than a decade — 80.6% of students graduate in four years — it still trails behind most other states.
Many demographics fell below the state number. Native American students in New Mexico graduated high school in four years 78% of the time, while Black students graduated in four years 76.4% of the time, according to data from the Public Education Department.
Graduation rates worsened for students who were housing insecure. Homeless students graduated in four years 63.2% of the time, while students in foster care graduated in four years only about 40% of the time.
These demographics show similarly disproportionate rates of disconnection in New Mexico.
The report found 29.2% of Native Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 were not employed or in school, the highest of any ethnic group, though the survey acknowledges that the data may not capture the realities of living in Native communities, where education, work, caregiving and cultural responsibilities often fall outside of formal school and employment systems.
Almost 23% of Black youth were disconnected, compared with 16.4% of Hispanic youth and 12.7% of white youth.
Young women were almost 2% more likely to be unemployed and not in school than young men. The report attributes this to pregnancy, early parenthood and unpaid caregiving responsibilities rather than lower attachment to education or work.
In some rural areas, opportunities may not be in abundance, contributing to a higher level of disconnection. The highest concentration of disconnected youth is in western New Mexico, particularly around Gallup and Shiprock, where 30% of young people are not employed or in school.
Eastern New Mexico and Albuquerque’s South Valley also reported high rates of youth disconnection — more than half of the state’s disconnected youth live in Bernalillo, Doña Ana, San Juan and McKinley counties.
If New Mexico reduces its population of disconnected youth by 10% over the next three years, it will be in line with the national average. State officials hope to reach young people before they drop out of high school via support programs at the PED and flexible, alternative schools.
The state also hopes to expand its workforce training programs, including Integrated Education and Training, which combines basic education with job training.
At YDI in Albuquerque, many of the staff come from homelessness, addiction and incarceration, Cordova said. The organization uses a peer model to help steer young people out of the system.
“We teach a lot of resiliency skills,” she said.”They're not moving forward, because they don't have the confidence, they don't have the skills, they don't have the guidance to do it.”