Woman accused of hit-and-run with Micah Westwolf pleads guilty

A plea deal was reached in the case of Sunny Katherine White, who was charged with battery Micah Westwolf with his car on US Highway 93 in Arles in March 2023.

Westwolf, a 22-year-old Native woman, was walking home on Highway 93 near White Coyote Road when she was struck and killed by a car driven by White.

White was charged with five counts in Westwolf’s death, including vehicular homicide while intoxicated.

White pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and “incident involving another person” during a court appearance Wednesday in Polson.

MTN news

As part of the plea agreement, two counts of felony child endangerment and one count of possession of dangerous drugs were dismissed.

White previously pleaded not guilty to all five charges against her.

A sentencing date for White has not yet been set, although it is expected to be in early 2025.
We’ll let you know if we get more information.

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(OCTOBER 23, 2023) The Lake County District Attorney’s Office has charged Sunny Katherine White with vehicular homicide in connection with the death of Micah Josephine Westwolf.

In March 2023, Westwolf died after being struck by a car while walking on Highway 93 near White Coyote Road near Arlie.

The suspect in the murder of Mika Westwolf appears before the court

Seven months later, White was charged with five felonies: homicide by vehicle while intoxicated, accident involving another person or death, two counts of felony child endangerment, and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

White was arrested on Oct. 20, 2023, on an out-of-jurisdiction warrant and spent the weekend in the Flathead County Jail. She was released on Sunday.

MTN News has confirmed that an affidavit was filed on Monday detailing what investigators say happened on the night of the fatal hit-and-run.

According to the affidavit, around 4:15 a.m. on March 31, 2023, Tribal Police Officer TJ Haynes was on patrol north of Arley on Highway 93 when he saw the wreckage of the car and the body. Mika Westwolf was later identified as the victim.

A little more than an hour later, at 5:23 a.m., a deputy with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office spotted a gold 2008 Cadillac Escalade with front end damage and a missing passenger side mirror parked near Paulson. The damage to the vehicle matched the description of the wreckage described at the scene.

The deputy saw a woman, later identified as Sunny White, moving items from the wrecked Escalade to another vehicle. According to the affidavit, White said her car was overheating and she called a friend to help her.

The affidavit states that White claimed she hit the deer, did not stop and continued driving — “(White) claimed she was passing the bottle to her child and did not see the deer,” court documents state.

The affidavit states that White’s two children, 4-year-old Arian and 2-year-old Nation, were in White’s car.

White told Montana State Patrol Trooper Tyler Dagger that she was “going to Kalispell from Butte for the weekend with two small children.”

She also denied drinking alcohol and that she “had not used methamphetamine or fentanyl in a week,” court documents said.

In a statement to Officer Daugher, White explained that she assumed she had hit a deer and turned left onto the highway. After that, the car was seized and towed.

MHP operator Wayne Bieber documented the crash scene. The affidavit states that “evidence from the scene indicates that Westwolf was traveling in the northbound lane or near the fog line when she was struck by the suspect vehicle.”

Westwolf was struck head-on, and the force of the impact pushed her body closer to the north side of the road, the affidavit said. Westwolf died from multiple blunt force injuries.

WHO WAS MICHA WESTWOLFF?

Who was Micah Westwolf?

After interviewing Westwolf’s brother, Devian Howard, police learned the siblings had gone to a bar in the Ravalli area that evening.

On the way back to Arles, they stopped at North Valley Creek, about five miles north of the crash site, where Wethwolf left her phone in the car and drove away, according to the affidavit. Howard couldn’t find Westwolf and left her a voicemail at 1:13 AM

The affidavit states that according to cell phone data, White left Butte around midnight, drove through Missoula at 2:45 a.m. and was at the scene of the accident at 3 a.m.

After obtaining a warrant to search White’s vehicle, methamphetamine, five syringes and two unopened packages of Narcan were found. White’s blood sample also tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.

White was ordered to appear in Lake County District Court the first Wednesday after her arrest.

Months after her death, the Westwolf family created the Mika Matters movement to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) and call for justice in her case.

The family released a statement on Friday, which states:

“As we mark seven months since Mika’s tragic death, it is important to recognize that this arrest is just the beginning of the journey to justice. The fight to prosecute, raise awareness and protect the lives of indigenous, missing and murdered indigenous people The fight with relatives continues. Our hearts still go out to our loved ones, and we are deeply saddened that Native Americans continue to go missing at an alarming rate.

We will let you know when we have more information.