ALBUQUERQUE – Patrick Begay, 43, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Churchrock pled guilty March 17 in federal court in Albuquerque, to an abusive sexual contact charge.

The plea agreement recommends that Begay be sentenced within the range of 144 to 216 months in federal prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court. Begay will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Begay was arrested in November on a four-count indictment charging him with sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 from November 2013 through December 2015, and engaging in sexual contact with a child under the age of 12 on Jan. 6, 2016.

According to...

ALBUQUERQUE – Norman Yazzie, 56, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Shiprock, N.M., was sentenced March 21 in federal court in Albuquerque to 10 years in prison followed by four years of supervised release for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Yazzie was arrested in May 2016 on a criminal complaint charging him with assault and firearms offenses on April 29, 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in San Juan County. According to the complaint, Yazzie shot the victim with a rifle in the forehead and the knee, causing her to suffer serious bodily injury.

Yazzie subsequently was indicted on May 24, and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, a...

ALBUQUERQUE – Brandon Bob Lincoln, 30, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Breadsprings, N.M., was sentenced March 21 in federal court in Albuquerque to 37 months in prison for his involuntary manslaughter conviction. Lincoln will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence.

Lincoln was arrested in March 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with involuntary manslaughter. According to the complaint, Lincoln killed a Navajo man when he crashed his vehicle on March 20, 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County. At the time of the crash, Lincoln was driving under the influence of alcohol.

Lincoln subsequently was...

The legal limit is .08.

Betty Joe

March 19, 10:42 pm

7th DWI, Aggravated

Joe, 63, of Window Rock was arrested for her seventh DWI this past weekend. She already had a suspended license; however, that didn’t stop her from taking to the road after drinking 30 bottles of Budweiser that day, according to her testimony in the report. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she crashed her vehicle eastbound on Interstate 40 around the 30 mile marker.

She stated to a responding deputy that she had planned to kill herself, at the same location her brother had perished, at a location on I-40. Her slurred speech, and odorous breath verified to responding McKinley County Sheriff’s Office Task...