Law

Navajo man sentenced for killing former girlfriend

An 18-year-old Navajo man was sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison for stabbing his former girlfriend to death in front of her home on the reservation.

Philip Notah pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder. He admitted to killing Brooke Spencer, a basketball standout, on June 5, 2006, after an argument about Spencer's plans to go to college.

Spencer had just graduated from Gallup High School, where she helped lead the basketball team to a state championship title. “It's really hard to know your daughter is not here anymore and it’s because of someone that did what he did,” Leann Eskeets-Spencer, Brooke's mother, told the court, KRQE News reported.

Get the Story:
Gallup girl’s killer gets federal time (KRQE News 13 2/27)
Gallup teen gets 15 years for killing estranged girlfriend (KOB 2/27)
Notah sentencing today (The Gallup Independent 2/27)
Family prepares for sentencing of daughter's killer (The Gallup Independent 2/27)

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