Indictment Unsealed Charging Woman with Second-Degree Murder in Connection with January Incident on Navajo Nation Land
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 31, 2012 |
SALT LAKE CITY—A federal indictment unsealed Monday afternoon charges Michelle Davida Harvey, age 28, of Monument Valley, Utah, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, with second-degree murder and discharging a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
Harvey was arrested Friday in Oljato, Utah. She was arraigned on the charges Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Warner. A detention hearing has been set for Wednesday at 10 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Evelyn J. Furse.
The indictment alleges that Harvey killed Carlos Peney Mose, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, during a January 28, 2012 incident in Halchita, Utah. Mose was pronounced dead at the Kayenta, Arizona Medical Clinic about 5 p.m. on January 28, 2012.
The potential maximum penalty for the murder charge is up to life in prison. The firearm count carries a potential mandatory-minimum sentence of 10 years, which would run consecutive to any other sentence.
Indictments are not findings of guilt. Individuals charged in indictments are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court.
The case is being investigated by special agents of the FBI and Navajo Nation criminal investigators.