Judge rejects plea agreement in case of missing Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay

PHOENIX, AZ (AP) — A federal judge in Phoenix has rejected a plea agreement that would have allowed a man who admitted to beating a Navajo elder and leaving her for dead to avoid more prison time.

Preston Henry Tolth, 26, now will face trial on charges of carjacking and assault in relation to the 2021 disappearance of Ella Mae Begay. A trial date hasn’t been set.

Under the agreement, Tolth would have been sentenced to three years of time served in exchange for acknowledging his role in the crime and pleading guilty to a single count of robbery.

Begay’s case received national media attention and helped highlight the broader crisis of Indigenous people who go missing or are killed. Nearly five years after she disappeared, Begay has not been found.

The rare decision to reject a plea agreement followed anguished testimony from Begay’s son and niece who told the court Tolth should not walk free without revealing Begay’s location.

Ella Mae Begay’s daughter reported her mother missing in June 2021 from her home in Sweetwater, Arizona, a small community on the northern part of the Navajo Nation.

Tolth, whose father was dating Begay’s sister, initially denied involvement in her disappearance. In a later interrogation, he confessed to stealing Begay’s truck with her in it, punching her repeatedly and leaving her on the side of the road.

Tolth sold the truck for money and drugs, according to the agreement.

Tolth was set to face trial in 2024, but a federal judge dealt prosecutors a major blow by ruling his confession inadmissible, saying Tolth had been unlawfully coerced by an FBI agent who lied about evidence that law enforcement had against him after Tolth had invoked his right to remain silent.

In a sentencing memo, federal prosecutors said the suppression of Tolth’s confession weakened the government’s case and that the plea agreement would provide Begay’s family with more “certainty and finality” than a trial with sparse evidence.