Woman charged in Mika Westwolf’s stabbing death pleads guilty

A plea deal was reached in the case of Sunny Katherine White, who was charged with battery. Mika Westwolf with her vehicle on US Highway 93 in Arlee in March 2023.

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

White faced five charges in Westwolf’s hit-and-run death, including vehicular homicide while under the influence.

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

MTN news

Two counts of child endangerment and one count of criminal possession of dangerous drugs were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

White previously pleaded not guilty to all five charges she faced.

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

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(OCTOBER 23, 2023) Sunny Katherine White has been charged by the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office with vehicular homicide in connection with the death of Mika Josephine Westwolf.

Westwolf died after being struck by a vehicle while walking on Highway 93 near White Coyote Road, just outside Arlee, in March 2023.

Suspect in Mika Westwolf’s hit-and-run death appears in court

Seven months later, White was charged with five felonies: vehicular homicide while under the influence, accidents involving another person or a deceased person, two counts of child endangerment and felony drug possession dangerous.

White was arrested on October 20, 2023, on an out-of-jurisdictional warrant and spent the weekend in the Flathead County Jail. On Sunday, she was removed.

MTN News confirmed that an affidavit was filed on Monday detailing what investigators say happened on the night of the fatal shooting.

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

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

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

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

The affidavit states that White had her two children, 4-year-old Aryan and 2-year-old Nation, in her car.

White told Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Tyler Dager that he was “driving with his two young children to Kalispell from Butte for the weekend.”

She also denied consuming alcohol and “has not used methamphetamine or fentanyl in a week,” court documents state.

In his statement to Trooper Dager, White explained that he assumed what he hit was a deer and turned left onto the highway. The vehicle was then impounded and towed.

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

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

WHO WAS MIKA WESTWOLF?

Who was Mika Westwolf?

After interviewing Westwolf’s brother, Davian Howard, troopers learned the brothers had driven to a bar in the Ravalli area that evening.

According to the affidavit, on the way back to Arlee the two stopped near North Valley Creek, about five miles north of the crash site, where Wetwolf left his phone in the vehicle and drove off. Howard couldn’t find Westwolf and left her a voicemail at 1:13 in the morning

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

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

White was ordered to appear in Lake County court on Wednesday after her arrest.

In the months following her death, Westwolf’s family created the Mika Matters movement to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) and demand justice in her case.

The family released a statement friday which says:

“As we mark seven months since Mika’s tragic death, it is critical to recognize that this arrest is just the beginning of the journey to justice. The fight to seek accountability, raise awareness and protect the lives of Indigenous people and missing and murdered Indigenous people. Relatives remain an ongoing battle. Our hearts go out to the families still searching for their loved ones, and we remain deeply saddened that Native Americans continue to disappear at an alarmingly higher rate than before.”

We will update you as we get more information.