Man who helped the couple facing district court charges
By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
Three people who reportedly lured a Gallup man to a location and then killed him are now facing jail time.
Shannon Etsitty and Elias Viola were both tried in federal court for their alleged crimes since they are members of the Navajo Nation. They allegedly committed the crime because the victim, Willard Kee. Jr., was having sexual relations with Etsitty, who was . She reportedly wanted Kee out of her life because he was “getting on her nerves” and her boyfriend at the time, Viola, reportedly took matters into his own hands.
Halbert Sam, who was 34-years-old at the time of the crime, allegedly got involved with the couple’s scheme because he was hanging with his friend Viola at the time of the crime.
Viola received a 30–year prison sentence May 17 after he pled guilty to conspiring to kidnap. Upon his release from prison, Viola will be subject to five years of supervised release.
Etsitty was sentenced to 14 years in prison July 29, and has to pay almost $20,000 in restitution for her role in luring and abducting Kee. Upon her release from prison, Etsitty will be subject to three years of supervised release.
Sam is facing trial in the Gallup District Court. He is being charged with first degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, aggravated battery, and tampering with evidence. His detention and preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 5.
TURNING A MISSING PERSONS CASE INTO A HOMICIDE
Kee was reported missing to the Gallup Police Department by his mother Sept. 17, 2021, around 4:15 pm. She told police that the last time she’d seen Kee was around 11 pm the night before. Kee was 27 years old at the time of his disappearance.
He’d been missing for about six days before his body was found.
The State Medical Examiner Richard Malone reached out to the GPD regarding an unidentified body found in a field near Tseyatoh Road in Mentmore, N.M. Sept. 23. Kee’s mother later identified the body as her son’s thanks to the tattooed numbers “12” and “5” on his left forearm.
The body had been heavily decomposed, but according to the autopsy report, Kee had been stabbed in the chest. His skull had also been fractured.
Kee’s case was changed from a missing persons case to a homicide case.
WHAT HAPPENED ON SEPT. 16, 2021?
Wilson and FBI Special Agent Justin Tennyson immediately began working the case. They obtained a search warrant for Kee’s phone records, and found a text exchange between him and a woman named Shannon Etsitty. The detectives learned that Etsitty’s address is about one mile from where Kee’s body was found.
The text messages exchanged between Etsitty and Kee revealed that the two planned to meet up the evening of Sept. 16, 2021 to have sex. According to court records, Viola sent a text message from Etsitty’s phone propositioning Kee, who agreed to meet.
Kee stated in the text messages that he wanted to have sex with Etsity in the parking lot of his apartment complex, but “she” responded saying she would rather “go somewhere dark to smash.” Viola told Kee Etsitty would pick him up at his apartment.
Around 10:25 pm that night, Viola sent a text to Kee’s phone saying Etsitty had arrived in a red car without a front windshield. Kee responded by saying he was waiting.
Etsitty picked Kee up from his residence and drove him to a location where Viola and Sam allegedly attacked him in the vehicle, beating Doe with a baseball bat and stabbing him with a screwdriver. The group then hid Kee’s body under nearby brush before returning hours later to move him to a field near Etsitty’s mother’s house.
Investigators reviewed Kee’s text messages and determined Etsitty was the last person with whom he communicated. They also determined that shortly after those communications, she and Viola were involved in a single-vehicle crash near Kee’s apartment. However, the crash site was several miles from the location Kee’s body was found. Investigators returned to the crash site and found one of Kee’s black shoes, which matched one found near his body.
Police executed search warrants for Etsitty and Viola’s cellphone and Facebook records. After reviewing messages and confirming Viola was in the area where Kee’s missing shoe was found, police tried to find the vehicle involved in the crash. On Nov. 16, 2021, the FBI located the car in a tow yard.
The FBI executed a search warrant on the vehicle Nov. 30, 2021. The backseat was missing and the front-passenger seat, trunk, and the area beneath the backseat showed signs of blood staining. FBI agents executed a search warrant at Viola’s home April 1, 2022. Inside, agents located the missing backseat from the vehicle. Through forensic testing, agents determined blood on the backseat matched Kee’s.
