Jun 19, 2007 6:53 pm US/Mountain
Murder, Sex Assault Charges Filed In Durango Death
Prepared for cbs4denver.com by Matthew J. Buettner, Web Producer.
DURANGO, Colo. (AP) ―
Prosecutors filed murder and sexual assault charges Tuesday against three men in the death of a woman whose body was found in a hotel two weeks ago.
Investigators said Nicole Leigh Redhorse, 34, was dead when police and emergency workers went to a room at the Spanish Trails Inn and Suites after a 911 call early on the morning of June 7.
Derrick Nelson Begaye, Harold Nakai and Carlton Lee Yazzie each faces one count of first-degree murder and four of counts of first-degree sexual assault, La Plata District Attorney Craig Westberg said.
Police have said Begaye, 24, lives in New Mexico but his hometown wasn't available. Nakai, 34, lives in Durango and Shiprock, N.M., officers said. No state or hometown was released for Yazzie, 38, but officers said he lived in the Four Corners area.
All were being held without bail. Their next hearing was scheduled for June 29.
Westberg said a judge had issued a gag order and he could not comment on the case.
Redhorse was born in Farmington, N.M., and attended high school in Niwot, 20 miles northwest of Denver, before graduating from University High in Tucson, Ariz., and Dartmouth College.
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