{"id":12299,"date":"2026-03-12T16:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/holiday-does-not-enter-plea-in-veterans-park-homicide-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:32:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:32:43","slug":"holiday-does-not-enter-plea-in-veterans-park-homicide-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/holiday-does-not-enter-plea-in-veterans-park-homicide-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday does not enter plea in Veterans Park homicide case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robert
Robert Salt (left) and Nikhona Holiday (right) are suspects in the murder of a man in Veterans Park on Wednesday night. Two other victims are in the hospital.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Nykhona Holiday, the 20\u2011year\u2011old charged with murder in a fatal beating at Veterans Park, appeared in District Court Thursday morning but did not enter a plea.<\/p>\n

Her attorney, Stephen Singer, told the court the defense recently submitted new materials that prosecutors may need time to review.<\/p>\n

The case stems from a homicide at Veterans Park last August near the Cortez Welcome Center where authorities found Curtis Benally, 40, dead from blunt\u2011force trauma to the head. Bilbert Tsosie, 61, and Anthony Hill, 56, were also badly beaten and transported to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Responding officers testified in prior hearings that they found the men unconscious with severe wounds to the face and large amounts of blood at the park.<\/p>\n

Both Robert Salt and Holiday face charges of first\u2011degree murder and first\u2011degree assault in connection with the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also submitted a fairly lengthy legal memo regarding the case, which I also assume the state needs to review,\u201d Singer said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said they had only recently received the materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got the mitigation report two days ago,\u201d Assistant District Attorney Justin Pierce told the court. He added that relatives of Curtis Benally were present in the courtroom and had expressed frustration with delays.<\/p>\n

District Court Judge William Furse said the court aims to move cases forward quickly while ensuring they are fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI share a desire for cases of this type to move expeditiously yet fairly,\u201d Furse said. \u201cSometimes, however, when speed is prioritized over fairness, we have cases come back on appeal, which is a very frustrating thing for both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge then asked whether any victims\u2019 families would be speaking in court Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, they said they wanted to speak. I think they\u2019ve changed their mind. They\u2019re potentially going to speak on a different matter at a different date,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n

Details emerge from earlier hearing<\/div>\n

Some parts of the prosecution\u2019s theory emerged during a Feb. 6 preliminary hearing for Salt, where prosecutors argued he instigated and carried out the assaults while Holiday was present.<\/p>\n

The hearing was meant to determine whether the state had enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial. A judge ruled there was sufficient evidence for Salt\u2019s charges to move forward, and Holiday previously waived her right to a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n

Salt\u2019s hearing involved testimony from law enforcement officers who described arriving at the scene Aug. 20 and how the investigation unfolded. Prosecutors pointed to Holiday\u2019s statements during an interview alleging Salt\u2019s conduct, witness accounts that he told her, \u201cthis is what we do,\u201d and video showing the pair together before and after the assaults.<\/p>\n

A detective testified Holiday agreed to tell him everything during an interview after learning one of the men had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cNykhona appeared visibly upset upon learning this information \u2026 Nykhona stated that Robert coerced her into participating in the assaults by threatening her life,\u201d wrote Detective Charles Osborn in the complaint.<\/p>\n

According to charging documents, Holiday admitted to kicking each of the three men multiple times and described Salt as highly intoxicated while repeatedly threatening her and other people.<\/p>\n

Next court date set<\/div>\n

Singer said Thursday the defense and prosecutors are continuing discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any objection if the court wants to set the case for an arraignment while we continue plea negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The defense also submitted a mitigation report, a document that typically outlines a person\u2019s background and history, provides character references and is often used during plea negotiations or sentencing to humanize the person.<\/p>\n

Furse set the case for a plea hearing May 7 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

awatson@the\u2011journal.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

negotiations continue between prosecutors and defense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-12299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18622,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12299\/revisions\/18622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12299"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=12299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}