Police Blotter: N.M. police arrest man wanted in Okla.
On Sept. 6, New Mexico State Police officers responded to State Road 118, mile marker 26, near Gallup, in reference to a hit-and-run vehicle accident involving a pedestrian, according to a news release from the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
Through the course of the investigation officers learned that the victim Lofton Gray, 31, was wanted out of Chickasha, Okla., for larceny of an automobile. A warrant for his arrest had been issued in Oklahoma.
Officers also learned that agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Chickasha Police Department were seeking Gray for questioning regarding the suspicious death of his girlfriend Amanda Cecil, 24, who was found deceased in her home Sept. 5.
The stolen vehicle Gray was in was located not far from the crash scene. Gray was hospitalized after the crash with non-life threatening injuries and will be booked on the outstanding arrest warrant.
The crash is still under investigation by Gallup State Police officers. New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau agents are assisting OSBI agents with processing of the vehicle. OSBI and NMSP IB Agents are in Gallup, working this new development.
Lukachukai man pleads guilty to assault
ALBUQUERQUE — Antonio Yazzie, 22, who resides in Lukachukai, Ariz., pleaded guilty Wednesday to an assault with a dangerous weapon charge under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Yazzie and his sister Maraintoinette Lynn Yazzie, 26, also of Lukachukai, were arrested in April 2014 on a criminal complaint alleging that they attacked a Navajo man at his home in Tohlakai, N.M., on Feb. 26, 2014.
The two subsequently were indicted in May 2014 and charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of robbery.
According to court filings, Yazzie and his sister allegedly assaulted the victim by restraining him and striking him repeatedly in the face and head with a rock and a coffee mug. The two then allegedly robbed the victim of cash and his truck.
During Wednesdays proceedings, Yazzie pleaded guilty to Count 1 charging him with assault with a dangerous weapon. In his plea agreement, Yazzie admitted striking the victim in the head and the face with a rock and a coffee mug with the intent to do bodily harm.
Yazzie has been in federal custody since his arrest and remains detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. At sentencing, he faces a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Mariantoinette Lynn Yazzie has been in federal custody since her arrest and has entered a not guilty plea to the charges in the indictment.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow