The burglary of Family Dollar, 2041 S. Second St., happened on Aug. 11 and two weeks passed before the Gallup Police Department got busy with the warrant work, and sure enough, Wendell R. Smith was picked up this last week.

Remanded to the McKinley County Detention Center on charges of Burglary of a structure (commercial burglary) and criminal damage to property over $1,000, Smith will now be facing court on the two fourth Degree Felonies and will be held without Bond until his first court appearance.

The incident was noticed when an active motion alarm went off at the business. When police arrived at the building, the front door was propped open with a shopping cart and a front...

ALBUQUERQUE – Larry June, 58, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Shiprock, N.M., pled guilty Aug. 21, in federal court in Albuquerque 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 FBI and Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety arrested June in November 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with killing a Navajo woman by stabbing her with a knife on Nov. 25, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in San Juan County, N.M.  June was subsequently indicted on Dec. 20, and was charged with second-degree murder.

During...

State Sen. James White, R-Albuquerque, recently joined state legislators from around the country for a meeting of the Council of State Governments in Detroit, Michigan.

At one event, he and two others sat in a car. White wasn’t driving. Neither was anyone else in the car.

In fact, there was no steering wheel. Just a panic button.

The car didn’t go at highway speeds—in fact, it only went 15 MPH—but that was enough to impress him. White was at a test facility for autonomous cars.

More legislators might start taking rides like White’s in the future as more autonomous vehicles hit the roads—and as states grapple with what that means for existing motor vehicle laws.

While the...

PHOENIX – Roneldo James, 28, of Pinon, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to eight years of imprisonment Aug. 21, to be followed by three years of supervised release.  James had previously pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.  James committed the offense with his two brothers, Delfred Lee and Milfred James, who were previously sentenced to seven and six years of imprisonment, respectively, for their roles in the offense.

On Dec. 1, 2015, James and his brothers held a juvenile victim and others at gunpoint against their will in a Pinon, Ariz. residence on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation.  All parties involved are members of the Navajo...