The hearing has two key components, La Plata County District Attorney Craig Westberg told The Dartmouth in an interview. Westberg said the district attorney's office must show probable cause that the three defendants, Derrick Begaye, 24, Harold Nakai, 34, and Carlton Lee Yazzie, 38, committed the crimes of which they have been accused. In addition, the hearing will determine the bail status for the accused.
"They are all being held without bond because they're capital offenses," Westberg said. "[In order ]to hold them without bond, our objective is slightly higher: we must show that the proof is evident and presumption great."
Westberg said he would present some, but not all, of the prosecution's evidence at the hearing.
Police found Redhorse dead at approximately 5 a.m., June 7 in a room at the Spanish Trails Inn and Suites in Durango. No cause of death has been announced, although Westberg noted that he recently received the autopsy report. Nakai, who is alleged to have been Redhorse's boyfriend, and Begaye were present when police arrived on the scene and told authorities that they purposefully gave Redhorse enough alcohol to have her pass out so that they could rape her, according to an arrest affidavit reported on by the Farmington Daily Times.
If convicted, the accused could face the death penalty.
"We will certainly do our level best to bring these three to justice," Westberg said
During her time at Dartmouth, Redhorse was a sociology major and economics minor and active on campus. She was a member of Native Americans at Dartmouth and Students for Choice, showed prospective students around campus as a tour guide for the admissions office and participated in the Big Brother/Big Sister program, according to alumni records.
"This is a truly tragic and terrible situation and the College extends its deepest symptathies to Nicole's family and friends," Roland Adams, Director of Media Relations for the College, said of Redhorse's death.
Redhorse's Dartmouth career was a source of pride for her father, who brought her to the east coast to visit Dartmouth and Brown University when the time came for her to pick a college, according to the Durango Herald.
"When I was in high school, a long time ago, I wanted to attend Dartmouth," Redhorse's father, Kenneth, wrote in a eulogy, the Herald reported. "Without any pressure from me, she picked Dartmouth, and it made me proud that she was able to do what I was not able to do."
Family members emphasized Redhorse's intelligence, recalling that she learned how to speak Spanish from a babysitter when she was just three years old, the paper reported.
After the 1995 Commencement ceremonies at Dartmouth, at which Redhorse had her picture taken with that year's keynote speaker President Bill Clinton, Redhorse worked at different jobs around the country, including a stint at an American Indian Museum in New York and one at a Seattle law firm, the Herald reported. She moved to Durango in September 2006 in search of employment, the paper wrote of Redhorse in her obituary.
