Police Blotter: Trio gets more than a speeding ticket

WINDOW ROCK

A vehicle pulled for allegedly speeding on Navajo Route 15 in Indian Wells, Arizona, got more than a speeding ticket on Aug. 18.

According to a police report from the Dilkon District, a green GMC suburban was observed to be swerving on the road. When police caught up with the vehicle, the driver, Fred B. Willie, 54, of Dilkon, Arizona, was issued a civil traffic infraction.

During the traffic stop, police reported observing a passenger, Freddie B. Willie, 57, as being intoxicated due to his behavior, “red glossy eyes and greasy face.”

Police reported asking the owner of the vehicle, Cynthia Overtaker, 65, from Tuba City, to search her vehicle, to which she gave permission.

Police found a bottle of whiskey and a 30-pack of alcoholic beverages and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Police arrested Fred Willie for possession and delivery of the liquor. Freddie Willie was arrested for public intoxication.

The shotgun belonging to Overtaker was confiscated, but later given back to her at the Dilkon Police Department.

Fight involving axe

Navajo Nation Police with the Dilkon District responded to reports of a fight involving an axe on Aug. 18.

According to the report, Vernon Dean Attakai, 20, from White Cone, Arizona, allegedly used an axe on his brother Sean Attakai, 25, during the fight. Attakai hit his brother with the axe three times on the head.

His sister, 26, attempted to stop the fight, but was thrown through the wall of the house.

His brother was rushed to the Hopi Health Care Center and flown to the Medical Center in Flagstaff for his injuries.

Police found Attakai “passed out” inside a nearby home and took him into custody without incident. Charges against him are pending, as Dilkon Criminal Investigations and the FBI continue to investigate the incident.

71-year-old missing

A daughter of a 71-year-old man reported her father missing on Aug. 14 in the Crownpoint District.

Navajo Nation Police Officer Pamela Hurley-Vandever reported the daughter, Jane Lewis, said her father was last seen at Rural Address 217 on Star Pond Road in Borrego Pass, New Mexico. A silver alert was issued two days later.

According to Hurley-Vandever, Bennie Barbone was dropped off at RA217 around 9 p.m. on Aug. 14, by his nephew, Johnny Barbone, and his grandson, Quindell Barbone.

Hurley-Vandever said she was told that Bennie Barbone told the men “he was okay and asked them not to tell his family he was there” because he was “afraid of his wife.”

When police found him, he told them his wife had been allegedly abusing him for the past five years and that was why he did not return home when he was dropped off.

He told police he walked to a nearby residence where he was picked up by an unknown Hispanic male who drove him to Albuquerque. There, Barbone said, he stayed with the man for the night. The following day, he told police, he asked the man to drop him off in Borrego Pass, not at his home in To”Hajiilee. He was dropped off and found at the family sheep camp, which is located seven miles southwest of his family’s residence.

Barbone was taken to the Crownpoint hospital to be checked. He met his daughters there. Crownpoint Criminal Investigations was notified about the incident.

Shiprock fire deliberately set

The building that once was home to the Boys & Girls Club in Shiprock was deliberately set on fire, according to a Shiprock police report on Aug. 16.

According to the report, the Navajo Nation Fire Department and Navajo police responded to the fire. The old building, which is scheduled to be demolished sometime in the near future to make way for the new Shiprock Judicial Center, according to Shiprock Chapter President Duane “Chili” Yazzie, was engulfed in flames.

After the fire was extinguished, Shiprock Criminal Investigations was notified to investigate the fire, which police say, may have been intentionally set. No one was injured and no one has been arrested.

Fight with shots fired

An Aug. 11 “fight with shots fired” was reported to Navajo police with the Chinle District.

Police arrived at Roadside House 61 in Pinon, Arizona, and “saw people standing outside” of the house.

A man, later identified as Lemanuel Williams, 34, had a towel over his left arm with blood on it. Williams told police that an Oliver Leffew, 27, “shot towards his house with a shot gun.”

During their investigation, police reported Williams told them a fight occurred between Leffew and another person who lives next to Williams. During the fight, police were told, Leffew went to his residence and returned with a “long barrel silver colored” shotgun and began shooting.

It was at that time Williams said he and his brother were hit.

Williams told police rounds from the shotgun blast hit his arm. His brother, a Lyle Williams, 27, was also shot in the shoulder. Both men identified Leffew as being the alleged shooter.

Leffew fled from the area and has not been located. The incident was referred to the Chinle Criminal Investigations.

If Leffew is located, police are asking the public to call the nearest police department or the Chinle Police Department at 928-674-2111.

Shiprock man pleads guilty in stabbing

ALBUQUERQUE — Larry June, 58, of Shiprock, pled guilty Monday in federal court here to a voluntary manslaughter charge. Under the terms of his plea agreement, June will be sentenced to 97 months in prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

The charges are in connection with an investigation by the FBI and Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety into the death of a Navajo woman that occurred in Sheep Springs, New Mexico on Nov. 25, 2016.

According to June’s indictment, Navajo police responded to a report of a stabbing that occurred during a traditional Navajo ceremony being held that day in Sheep Springs.

When they got there, they found that a 53-year-old woman, who is identified in the indictment as Jane Doe, had been transported by people attending the ceremonial in an attempt to meet up with emergency medical technicians who were on the way to the scene.

When contact was made with EMS personnel, the victim was found to be unresponsive and bleeding from several stab wounds. She died shortly thereafter.

Police discovered through interviews with the people who transported her that she had been selling food from her trailer during the ceremony which had been held east of Mile Marker 45 on U.S Highway 491.
One of the witnesses told FBI agents that he overheard an argument coming from inside the victim’s trailer as he sat at campfire about 15 feet away.

When he went over and looked through a window in front of the trailer, he said he saw a man standing over the woman. He said the man appeared to be hitting her.

He said that when the man left the trailer, he went inside and saw the woman bleeding from several stab wounds. She was moaning. He said he asked her who did this and she responded, “My husband.”

Another witnesses also told FBI agents she heard the victim arguing with a man who was assisting her in taking orders and collecting money. That witness said she later heard banging noises that should like fighting coming from inside the trailer.

She added that she then heard a woman’s voice yell from inside the trailer, “He has a knife!”

She said she also looked through one of the trailer windows and saw the man standing over the victim and yelled at him to stop. She also said she heard the woman say that her husband was responsible for her injuries.

When Navajo police investigators interviewed the victim’s adult children, they identified Larry June as her husband.

June was found by police the next day in Shiprock wearing sweatpants that had red stains on them that appeared to be blood.

When June was interviewed by FBI agents and Navajo police, he said he was working with the victim at the ceremony selling food from her trailer. No other people were in the trailer.

Shortly after sundown, he said the two began arguing and he said his wife started yelling at him while other people were around, causing him to be embarrassed.

The arguing became physical, he said, when his wife poked at him with a lighter which caused him to push his wife, resulting in both falling to the ground near the stove. June said he then punched her three times as she leaned against a table.

He said his wife at that point grabbed a knife from the table with her right hand and swung it at him, missing him but stabbing herself in the right side.

June then told investigators that he then heard a woman asking what was going on so he left the trailer and walked away.

An examination of the victim’s body revealed that she had at least five stab wounds, two in the area of her right breast, two in her abdomen and one on her back.

During Monday’s proceedings, June pled guilty to a felony information charging him with voluntary manslaughter. In entering the guilty plea, June admitted that on Nov. 25, 2016, he stabbed the victim multiple times with a knife during a heated argument, and that the victim died as the result of the injuries she sustained. June remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

---