A New Mexico man has pleaded not guilty in the 2021 disappearance of an elderly woman on the Navajo Nation. Ella Mae Begay’s case has brought national attention to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
At his arraignment Friday in Flagstaff, 23-year-old Preston Henry Tolth pleaded not guilty to assault and carjacking charges. Begay’s friends and family attended the hearing and urged the judge to keep Tolth in custody.
"He’s where he’s at, his hands are shackled, he’s helpless, maybe just like my aunt was. We’re going to fight with this and him to get the right answers. My aunt really did not deserve this at all," said Begay's niece Seraphine Warren following Friday's hearing.
Warren brought attention to her aunt and other cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people last summer as she walked from the Navajo Nation to Washington DC.
Begay is still missing and prosecutors hope to uncover the truth about her disappearance. They say Tolth assaulted the then-62-year-old woman in the community of Sweetwater, Ariz., near Four Corners and then took her pickup truck, which he allegedly traded for drugs and $200 in Albuquerque.
Tolth was already in custody on a separate charge. A federal trial is scheduled to begin next month in Phoenix and if convicted he faces decades in prison.
