Is an update to a story we brought you where a woman was killed, mowed down, basically. No arrest, no charge. Finally, there are charges. Put it up full mass, we called for charges on day one. [00:00:19] Sonny White, a 28 year old Montana mom of two children named Aryan and the other child, named Nation, okay? Was arrested finally for fatally striking Mika Westwolf, [00:00:34] a 22 year old Native American woman, in March of 2023 while allegedly driving high on meth and then claiming she mistook the victim for a deer. White was apprehended in Flathead County Friday on a warrant out of Lake County [00:00:53] charging her with vehicular homicide while under the influence. Keep that picture up. Now, I wanna say this. This happened back in March, we covered it back in March, we called for charges back in March. Protesters, activists, individuals like myself, [00:01:12] you people like yourself who saw the story, cared, said something pushed these local authorities to do what they've done. Which is to provide prosecutorial justice. [00:01:27] Additional charges against White include accidents involving another person or deceased person, two counts of criminal child endangerment and criminal possession of dangerous drugs. It took them this long to make a simple arrest, and there's a dead human body. [00:01:44] Following White's arrest, Westwolf's family released a statement saying this was, quote, just the beginning of the journey towards justice. Let me give a recap. Westwolf was walking along highway 93 in the area of Arlee in the early hours of March 31 when she was hit by White's Cadillac Escalade [00:02:02] that was carrying her 4-year-old daughter. Arian Holmes is the name, and her 2-year-old son was in the car as well, named Nation Holmes. One Aryan, the other one nation. [00:02:17] There's more. A search of White's Cadillac actually turned up methamphetamine, syringes and two unopened packages of Narcan that's according to an affidavit filed in the case. [00:02:35] A blood test showed that the mom-of-two had methamphetamine and fentanyl in her system at the time of the crash. The investigation into Westwolf's death lasted 7 months. They did not charge this woman with all of that evidence [00:02:54] putting children in danger, killing a whole human being, having illegal narcotics in the vehicle, in her body 7 months. During which time the victim's family led a statewide campaign to raise [00:03:11] awareness of her case and others involving murdered and missing indigenous women. And demand that white be brought to account. Carissa Heavy Runner, Westwolf's mother told the Mussoulian that [00:03:30] she was glad to learn of White's arrest. Westwolf is a member of the Black Feet Nation and her brother, Davian Howard, were returning from a bar at the midnight of March 31. [00:03:47] When, for an unknown reason, she got out of the car near North Valley Creek and walked away, leaving her phone behind. White assumed she had hit a deer and swerved left. Westwolf was hit head on, thrown in the car on impact, [00:04:07] and died on the spot from multiple blunt force injuries. Shortly after 4:00 AM tribal officer, T.J Haynes, came across Westwolf's body on highway 93 surrounded by car debris from a crash. About an hour later, a Lake County sheriff's deputy spotted a gold [00:04:26] 2008 Cadillac Escalade with front end damage and a missing side mirror parked outside the town of Polson. White, who was seen removing items from the damaged SUV and transferring them to another vehicle, told the deputy that she had struck a deer and did not stop. [00:04:44] White claimed she was passing a bottle back to her baby and did not see the deer, according to the affidavit. The 28-year-old later told Montana Highway Patrol trooper who responded to the scene that she was driving with the two children from Butte to Kalispell for the weekend. [00:05:01] She denied drinking alcohol and said she had not used methamphetamine or fentanyl for an entire week. She said that on the record, let's go into the court document. In the wake of her death, a Westwolf's family launched the Mika Matters movement to call for justice through protests and awareness. [00:05:20] Earlier this year, a petition was created on MoveOn.org calling on the Justice Department to take over the investigation into Westwolf's death. Claiming that local authorities are being uncooperative and frustratingly slow. You don't say. I mean, hell, [00:05:35] they had enough to lock her up just on child endangerment on day one, okay? They literally caught her at the vehicle that did the killing, all right. Insane, but it should not take this much to bring a killer to justice. But this is what it takes in this country, unfortunately, [00:05:52] especially in some jurisdictions, more so than others. Yasmin, what are your thoughts? >> Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't heard of this story until now, and it is outrageous on so many levels. This story has white supremacy, it has drug abuse, it has the murder of an indigenous woman, and it's a justice system failure on top of all of that. [00:06:10] I don't know how this woman turned out this way to the point that she is unapologetically, almost proudly holding on to really ignorant beliefs, naming her children after those ignorant beliefs. To the point where she's on drugs, to the point that she's full of hate for [00:06:25] strangers. But I always feel like things like this are a systemic failure. Now, I wanna be clear, this woman is absolutely responsible for what she did, regardless of who or what failed her. But she's still very much a symptom of much larger and deeper problems that we're largely ignoring in our country. [00:06:42] And the fact that indigenous people are still so disrespected in this country is unbelievable and unforgivable at this point. We know better, we should know better. >> Speaker 1: We will bring updates as the case continues through the judicial system, all right?