Jury selection began Tuesday in a retrial for a man accused of raping and killing his girlfriend nine years ago at a Durango motel.
Harold Nakai, 43, formerly of Shiprock, was convicted in 2008 of criminally negligent homicide and sexual assault for the death of Nicole Leigh Redhorse, 34. But an appeals court ruled last year that Nakai was entitled to a new trial because some of his statements to police were involuntary and should have been suppressed at trial.
He was sentenced to 48 years in prison for aggravated sexual assault and another three years for the criminally negligent homicide.
In addition to Nakai, two codefendants – Derrick Nelson Begaye and Carlton Lee Yazzie – also were convicted in the death. Both are serving 48 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The case received significant attention in 2007 and 2008.
The trio are suspected of taking Redhorse to the Spanish Trials Inn & Suites on June 6, 2007. Once there, they continued to give her alcohol while having sex with her. At some point, a blunt object, perhaps a broken hammer handle, was used to assault her vaginally, and the injuries led to her bleeding to death.
After the assault, prosecutors said the three men went to sleep and left Redhorse bleeding on the floor. She could have survived her injuries had she received medical attention, a coroner testified in previous trials.
At the time of her death, Redhorse had a blood-alcohol level of about 0.47 percent, almost six times the legal limit for driving.
Redhorse was born in Farmington and attended Niowot (Colorado) High School before graduating from University High in Tucson, Arizona. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in economics from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1995.
In the months leading up to her death, Redhorse struggled with alcoholism, but her family hoped she would overcome her addiction to live a productive life. She lived in a home owned by her parents on County Road 203 north of Durango and worked for a brief time at Kachina Kitchen.
The trial is expected to last 2½ weeks, and is likely to include long days for jurors.
The case is being prosecuted by Dan Hotsenpiller, district attorney for the 7th Judicial District, which includes Montrose; and Janet Drake, senior assistant attorney general for the state of Colorado. Special prosecutors were appointed because District Attorney Todd Risberg had a conflict of interest because he represented one of the defendants in 2008 before becoming district attorney.
Nakai is being represented by Durango public defenders Kenneth Pace and Amy Smith.
District Judge Jeffrey Wilson is overseeing the case.
shane@durangoherald.com
