Appeals court tosses Tolth confession
in Ella Mae Begay case
CANYON POINT, Utah
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the suppression of statements made by a Diné man questioned in the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay, ruling that investigators violated his constitutional rights when they resumed questioning after he invoked his right to remain silent.
In a 2-1 decision issued Aug. 19, 2025, the panel affirmed a district court order excluding the confession of Preston Henry Tolth, who admitted to assaulting Begay during interrogations in 2021. The court held that officers failed to “scrupulously honor” his decision to stop speaking and instead used deception to persuade him to waive his rights.
Majority opinion
Circuit Judges Marsha Berzon and Joan H. Lefkow, a visiting district judge, wrote in the unsigned majority that the officers’ tactics fell short of standards set by the Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) and Michigan v. Mosley (1975).
“The record demonstrates that law enforcement did not scrupulously honor Tolth’s right to silence,” the court stated. “Six days after Tolth unambiguously invoked his right to silence in his first interview with law enforcement, a law enforcement officer initiated a second interview with Tolth. That interview, as well as a third interrogation, concerned the same crime as did the first.”
To read the full article, please see the Sept. 18, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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