‘Harrison shot me’
Forme NPD officer faces murder charge

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Philip Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Walk in law enforcement circles, and you’re likely to hear that Harrison Largo was a good officer. A member of the Navajo Nation Police Department who responded when asked; no questions. But Monday he faced a judge from a different angle, and found himself accused of being the thing he had once been charged with bringing to justice — a criminal. And not just a criminal: a killer.

Monday wasn’t the first time Largo sat at the defense table. On Dec. 16, 2002, he was accused of savagely beating his girlfriend and her daughter. That lost him his police credentials, but during litigation the charges faded to misdemeanors when the victim stopped cooperating with prosecutors, according to District Attorney Karl Gillson.

Apparently, as is often the case with domestic violence, he had reconciled with the victim.

Now, the victim Freda Toledo Smith, is dead. She was shot four times with a .22-caliber rifle near her home inside Thoreau Trailer Park on May 20. When Deputy Ed Marble of the McKinley County Sheriff’s office responded that day, she was still conscious and complaining of pain in her abdomen.

She said “Harrison shot me,” according to Marble’s report. Smith was flown to Albuquerque where she died during surgery. Largo was picked up on Route 605 a few hours later.

And Largo is going to trial for allegedly committing premeditated, willful murder. After a preliminary hearing at Magistrate Court that lasted all day, a judge found sufficient evidence Monday to support probable cause that Largo was culpable for Smith’s death and even caused it. Largo was bound over to District Court on first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, first- and third-degree felonies, respectively, where he will be arraigned in 30 days.

If convicted, Largo will face a mandatory 30 years in a state prison for the murder charge and up to three years for tampering with evidence.

Gillson, who is prosecuting Largo along with Assistant District Attorney Kerry Kamiski, said the case probably will not go to trial until mid-2009 because of its “sophistication.”
Public Defender Stephen Mcilwain, who represents Largo, did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.