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Aug 4, 2001 By Jim Mimiaga A Utah man who caused a head-on crash that resulted in the death of a New Mexico woman has been convicted of vehicular assault and fleeing an accident involving serious injury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported Thursday. Tony Yazzie from Aneth, Utah, was found guilty on Aug. 1 by a Durango jury seated before U.S. District Court Judge Lewis T. Babcock. Yazzie, 39, faces up to eight years in prison. The sentencing hearing is set for Oct. 10. Judith Kartchner, an Indian Health Services nurse in Shiprock, N.M., suffered serious internal trauma and bone fractures in the crash, which occurred April 11, 1999, on Highway 666 just north of the Colorado border. She died two days later from a heart attack while recovering from her injuries at Southwest Memorial Hospital. Yazzie was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver after an investigation revealed that he caused the crash. Police reconstructing the scene determined that Yazzie’s northbound Ford Explorer crossed over to the southbound lane and collided with Kartchner’s Dodge Ram. "The evidence in this case indicated that the Defendant deliberately fled the scene to avoid law-enforcement officers because he had been drinking alcoholic beverages prior to the crash," stated a summary of trial testimony and evidence provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Footprints leading north were observed along the roadside by responding officers. But Yazzie returned to the scene a short time later after persuading nearby residents to give him a ride back to his mother’s home near the Hogback area east of Shiprock, police learned after canvassing the neighborhood. "In doing so, the vehicle that Yazzie was riding in drove past the crash scene area while emergency vehicles and personnel were still on the scene," according to the summary, "but Yazzie failed to stop, give information and/or render aid or assistance to law-enforcement officers." Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper Robert Martin happened to come upon the crash within minutes and attended to Kartchner, who was pinned behind the wheel. She told him, and later told hospital staff, that Yazzie’s vehicle had "come into her lane." Martin saw an unattended vehicle at the scene that was traced to Yazzie. A loan-payment slip with Yazzie’s name on it was found nearby. Kartchner, 59, was an operating nurse at Northern New Mexico Medical Center in Shiprock, and was nearing retirement from a 40-year nursing career. She held the rank of Major as a nurse with the Arizona National Guard. The case involved a coordinated effort by the BIA, Colorado State Patrol, FBI, and Trooper Martin. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kennedy. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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