Man charged in Sanostee murder
GALLUP
Navajo police responded to a call on Oct. 18 near the old school in Sanostee, New Mexico, and when they got there, they found the body of a man with injuries to his face.
The man, whose name has not been released, was deceased. Next to his body, police found a rock covered with what appeared to be blood.
After some investigation, police were able to find a witness who said he saw the victim and Zachariah Nez walking away from his house toward the old school building. That was the last time, the witness said, that he saw the victim alive.
According to Nez’s arrest warrant, another witness, this one a female, told police that Nez came to her house about 8 p.m. on Oct. 17 and appeared to be “shaky.”
She asked what was wrong and told police that Nez responded, “I don’t know. I hit him with a rock.”
She told police Nez added that he had been drinking “a gallon” with the victim and as they were walking to the old school said to her that “I might have hurt (the victim) bad. I hit him with a rock. I might have killed him,” according to her statements in Nez’s arrest warrant.
Another woman has also come forward, according to police, confirming that story, saying she overheard Nez talking to the other woman and saying “I killed him. I killed him. I think I killed him. I don’t know what I am going to do.”
That witness told police that she did not hear Nez say the name of the person he had killed but she did hear him say that he had killed him with a rock.
Based on those statements, Nez was picked up by agents for theFBI and has now been charged with murder in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.
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