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U.S. NEWS Monday 31 July 2017
Suspect in killing of Navajo girl expected to change plea

town is near the Navajo An Amber Alert wasn’t is-
reservation. sued in New Mexico until
Begaye lured Mike and her around 2 a.m. the morn-
brother into his van, author- ing after Mike’s disappear-
ities say. The girl’s brother ance.
told police the man took An Amber Alert system
them deep into the des- for the 27,000-square-mile
ert and then walked off (69,930-square-kilometer)
with the girl and a tire iron reservation was proposed
in hand before returning years ago but never imple-
alone.Begaye told investi- mented, despite the tribe
gators he sexually assault- having been awarded
ed the girl and hit her twice $330,000 in federal funding
in the head with a crowbar, as part of a U.S. Justice De-
and that she was still mov- partment pilot project.Half
ing when he left her in the the money was used to buy
desert, according to court equipment such as mega-
documents. Her body was phones and pop-up tents,
later found in the remote but the rest went unspent.
This undated file photo provided by San Juan County, N.M. De- area.The younger brother The Navajo Nation covers
tention Center shows Tom Begaye of Waterflow, N.M. More than was able to escape. parts of Arizona, New Mex-
a year after authorities said an 11-year-old girl was kidnapped Mike’s father filed a lawsuit ico and Utah.Republican
and murdered in a remote part of the largest American Indian against the Navajo Nation Sen. John McCain of Ari-
reservation, Begaye charged in her death is scheduled to at-
tend a change of plea hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. He has for failing to have an emer- zona introduced legislation
previously pleaded not guilty. gency notification system in April that would expand
(San Juan County DC via AP) that he says could have the notification system to
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS Begaye is scheduled to saved his daughter’s life. tribal lands. q
Associated Press attend a change-of-plea
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) hearing Tuesday in an Al-
— A suspect is expected buquerque federal court.
to change his plea in the It’s not known if his lawyers
kidnapping, sexual assault and federal prosecutors
and killing of an 11-year-old have struck a deal.Be-
girl in a remote part of the gaye previously pleaded
largest American Indian not guilty to murder, sexual
reservation that prompted abuse and other charges.
an effort to expand the Begaye is from the small
Amber Alert system into town of Waterflow near the
tribal communities across unincorporated agricul-
the U.S. tural community of Lower
More than a year after the Fruitland, where Mike lived
May 2016 death of Ashlynne with her father and siblings,
Mike in Navajo Nation, Tom according to the FBI. The

Phoenix infant dies in hot car,

the second such death in city

PHOENIX (AP) — An infant tified the dead child as
left for about two hours in Josiah Riggins. No arrests
a hot car has died — the have been made, she said.
second such death in the The incident appears to be
past two days in the city, an accident, Subervi said.
the Phoenix Fire Depart- Zettica Mitchell, who told
ment said. the Arizona Republic she
Firefighters were called is a cousin of the baby’s
shortly before 3 p.m. Sat- father, called the death
urday to investigate a re- “shocking, devastating, just
port of a 1-year-old boy in sad.”
a car in the parking lot of “You feel like it’s something
the Free Church of God in that could happen to any-
Christ on the city’s south body,” she said.
side, authorities said. On Friday, authorities say a
The mother found the child, 7-month-old boy died after
who was pronounced being left alone in a hot
dead the scene, fire Capt. car in a northeast Phoenix
Larry Subervi said in a state- neighborhood in triple-digit
ment. conditions. He was iden-
Phoenix police Sgt. Mer- tified by police as Zane
cedes Fortune later iden- Endress.q