Woman accused in Mika Westwolf’s death pleads guilty

A plea agreement has been reached in the case of Sunny Catherine White, who was charged with assault Micah Westwolf in his vehicle on US Highway 93 in Arlee in March 2023.

Westulf, a 22-year-old Indigenous woman, was walking home on Highway 93 near White Coyote Road when she was struck by a vehicle driven by White.

White was charged with five charges in the death of Westwolf, who fled the scene, including homicide by vehicle while intoxicated.

During a court appearance Wednesday in Polson, White pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and “incidents 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 against her.

White’s sentencing date has not yet been set, although it is expected to be set in early 2025.
We will let you know if we receive additional information.

---

---

(OCTOBER 23, 2023) Lake County prosecutors have charged Sunny Catherine White with vehicular homicide in the death of Mika Josephine Westwolf.

Westwolf died after she was hit by a car while walking on Highway 93 near White Coyote Road near Arley in March 2023.

Micah Westulf murder suspect appears in court

Seven months later, White was charged with five felonies: vehicular homicide while intoxicated, accidents involving another person or a deceased person, two counts of child endangerment and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

White was arrested on Oct. 20, 2023, on an out-of-jurisdictional 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 the night of the deadly escape.

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

Just over an hour later, at 5:23 a.m., a Lake County sheriff’s deputy spotted a gold 2008 Cadillac Escalade with front end damage and a missing passenger-side rearview mirror parked near Polson. The damage to the vehicle was consistent with the description of the vehicle wreckage found at the scene.

A sheriff’s deputy saw a woman, soon identified as Sunny White, moving items from the wrecked Escalade to 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 the deer, did not stop and continued driving – “(White) claimed she passed the bottle to her child and did not see the deer,” court documents state.

The affidavit says White had her two children, 4-year-old Arians and 2-year-old Nation, in the car.

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

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

In a statement to Trooper Dagher, White explained that she believed she had hit a deer and turned left onto the highway. The car was then seized and towed.

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

Westwolf was struck in the forehead and the force of the impact threw her body toward the north side of the road, the affidavit states. Westwolf died from multiple blunt force injuries.

WHO WAS MIKA WESTWOLF?

Who was Mika Westwolf?

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

On the way back to Arlee, the two stopped near North Valley Creek, about five miles north of the crash site, where Wetwolf left her phone in the car and walked away, according to the affidavit. Howard couldn’t find Westwolf and left her a voicemail at 1:13 a.m.

The affidavit says cell phone data shows White left Butte around midnight, drove through Missoula at 2:45 a.m. and was at the crash scene at 3 a.m.

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

White was ordered to appear at the Lake County Courthouse on the first Wednesday of her arrest.

In the months following her death, Westwolf’s 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 statement on Friday, which states:

“As we mark seven months since Micah’s tragic death, it is important to recognize that this arrest is just the beginning of the path to justice. Fight for accountability, awareness and protection of Indigenous lives and missing and murdered Indigenous people. The struggle for relatives remains ongoing. Our hearts go out to the families still searching for their loved ones, and we remain deeply saddened by the fact that Native Americans continue to go missing at an alarming rate. The urgency to solve this problem has never been greater. was bigger.”

We will update you as soon as we receive additional information.