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New trial scheduled in 2007 homicide

District attorney recuses office for the rehearing

A new trial has been set for Nov. 9 for a man who was convicted in 2008 of negligent homicide and sexual assault in the death of a woman severely incapacitated by alcohol.

Harold Nakai heard the date set Thursday at a motions hearing in the courtroom for 6th Judicial District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson. A pre-trial conference is scheduled Oct. 30 at 9 a.m.

Dan Hotsenpiller, district attorney in the 7th Judicial District, Assistant District Attorney Keri Yoder, and Senior Assistant Attorney General Janet Drake are representing the state. Amy Smith and Kent Pace from the state public defender’s office in Durango are defending Nakai.

The prosecution team is from outside the area because 6th Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg served as co-counsel for one of Nakai’s co-defendants during his first trial, and he had to recuse his district from the case. Nakai’s first trial was held in Pueblo because Judge Wilson decided that the notoriety would prevent him from getting a fair trial.

Now, Wilson will write orders regarding various issues raised Thursday by the defense at the motions hearing.

Among the concerns of Smith and Pace are the apparent large discrepancy between the number of pages of evidence received by them and the prosecution. They also cited their client’s fourth- to fifth-grade education and limited English (he’s Navajo) at the time of the 2008 trial, his state of mind after a night of drinking and little sleep, and his inability to grasp the meaning of “rights” as in Miranda rights because the word has no equivalent in Navajo.

During Thursday’s motions hearing, Yoder questioned a technician from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation by speaker phone about an advanced method of testing for DNA that wasn’t available in 2008.

Nakai, Derrick Nelson Begaye and Carlton Lee Yazzie were convicted in separate trials.

Prosecutors alleged that the trio took Nicole Leigh Redhorse, who was Nakai’s girlfriend, to a room at Spanish Trails Inn & Suites on June 7, 2007. They continued to ply her with liquor while having sex with her.

At some point, Redhorse was vaginally penetrated with a blunt object, maybe a broken hammer handle. Her blood-alcohol content at the time was about 0.47, almost six times the limit for driving.

After the sexual assault, prosecutors said Nakai went to sleep, leaving Redhorse bleeding on the floor. Dr. Carol Huser, the La Plata County coroner at the time, testified that Redhorse could have survived the injuries had she received medical attention.

Nakai is getting a new trial because the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The court’s order said Wilson suppressed some of Nakai’s statements to investigators but should have suppressed more.

daler@durangoherald.com

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