Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Jury finds man guilty in 2007 sex assault, death

Harold Nakai could spend rest of life in prison

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details that might be disturbing to readers.By Shane Benjamin

Herald Staff Writer

A jury on Wednesday found a Shiprock man guilty of sexually assaulting a woman while she was too intoxicated to consent or resist – an assault so violent that it led to her death in 2007 at a Durango motel.

Harold Nakai, 43, showed no obvious signs of emotion after District Judge Jeffrey Wilson read the verdict about 1:30 p.m. in 6th Judicial District Court. About 25 people attended the hearing, including the victim’s family, uniformed police officers and sexual assault advocacy members.

It was the third trial for Nakai, who was found guilty of sexual assault and criminally negligent homicide in 2008, but was granted a new trial in 2015 after an appeals court ruled some of his statements to police were involuntary and should have been suppressed at trial.

A second trial was held in June, in which jurors upheld the criminally negligent homicide charge, but they were unable to reach a decision on the sexual assault charge. Prosecutors decided to retry Nakai on the more-serious sexual assault charge, which could result in a lifetime behind bars.

The trial started Sept. 19 and ended Tuesday with closing arguments. Jurors deliberated about seven hours before reaching their decision.

Nakai is one of three men who provided copious amounts of vodka to Nicole Leigh Redhorse, 34, of Durango, before having sexual relations with her June 6 and 7, 2007, at the Spanish Trails Inn & Suites, 3141 Main Ave.

The other men – Derrick Nelson Begaye and Carlton Lee Yazzie – are serving 48-year prison terms after being found guilty in 2008 of criminally negligent homicide and sexual assault.

While alone with Redhorse, Yazzie is suspected of inserting a blunt object, possibly a broken hammer handle, into Redhorse’s vagina, which caused severe lacerations. Those wounds were exacerbated later that night by Nakai, who had anal and vaginal sex with her while she was too intoxicated to consent or stop the assault from occurring.

Redhorse started bleeding profusely, and Nakai helped her to the toilet and put her in the bathtub with the shower running for more than an hour. Nakai told police he thought Redhorse was having a miscarriage. The blood clots were so thick he had to push them down the drain, he told police.

He then helped her out of the shower, wrapped her in a blanket and set her on the floor at the foot of a bed. He stripped the bed of its bloody sheets, flipped the bloody mattress and went to sleep. He woke up about 4:30 a.m. to find Redhorse lifeless and cold to the touch. He put her in the shower again for about 30 minutes before calling 911.

Dan Hotsenpiller, district attorney with the 7th Judicial District in Montrose, and Janet Drake, senior assistant attorney general for Colorado, were appointed to prosecute the case. Special prosecutors were appointed because 6th Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg represented one of the defendants prior to becoming district attorney, and therefore had a conflict of interest.

After the verdict, Hotsenpiller said communities need to do more to address substance abuse and sexual assault, which includes educating girls about dangerous situations and talking to boys about consent.

“Consent means cooperation, not just failing to say no,” he said.

He added: “This community, I think, really needed resolution.”

Public defense lawyer Justin Bogan said Nakai had no knowledge that Redhorse had been so violently sexually assaulted earlier in the evening. Nakai and Redhorse were in a caring relationship, he said. They were both heavy drinkers and accustomed to having “drunken sex,” he said.

Maura Doherty Demko, director of Sexual Assault Services Organization in Durango, said the community is evolving to recognize what constitutes sexual assault, and this verdict is another sign that residents are standing up to say “no more.”

Defense lawyers seemed to chalk it up as “drunken sex,” and therefore legal, Demko said, but having sex with someone who is incapacitated or frozen with fear is never OK.

At a funeral service in 2007, Redhorse was remembered for her ability to honor her Navajo roots while achieving educational excellence, including graduating from Darthmouth College in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in economics.

She moved to Durango in 2006, where she lived in a trailer owned by her family in the 2400 block of County Road 203, a couple of miles north of Durango in the Animas Valley. She worked briefly at Kachina Kitchen and temporarily as a road flagger, according to a job application.

In early 2007, her life began to spiral downward, Drake told jurors in her closing arguments.

“She was vulnerable because she was gripped by alcoholism,” she said.

Redhorse’s parents, Kenneth and Winona Redhorse, have sat through five trials related to their daughter’s death.

Kenneth Redhorse said he was “emotionally relieved” by Wednesday’s verdict.

“We appreciate the jurors and their time,” he said. “It’s very emotional. We appreciate the support of the community.”

shane@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments