Jury Convicts Pinon Man for Rape of 11 Year-Old Victim

     PHOENIX – Today, Murphy Alex Begay, 41, of Pinon, Ariz., was convicted by a jury of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.  Begay will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven P. Logan in July.

     In March 2012, Begay lured the 11 year-old victim outside the mother’s house during the night, where he forcibly raped the victim in a dirt field.  Both Begay and the victim are members of the Navajo Nation, and the crime was committed on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation.

     Begay is a convicted felon.  At the time he raped the victim, he was serving a term of supervised release for previously shooting an unarmed man.

     The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys William G. Voit and Dimitra H. Sampson, District of Arizona, Phoenix.