A Vernal couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that they took the prehistoric remains of a Fremont Indian infant from a cave near eastern Utah's Red Fleet Reservoir.
Wilma Jensen Brooks, 34, and Ricky Edward Brooks, 40, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene to one count each of removal and transportation of an artifact from public lands.As part of a plea bargain, a second identical count will be dropped at sentencing Jan. 7. The Brookses each face a maximum of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Defense attorney Gil Athay said the plea bargain calls for a sentencing recommendation of probation. The Brookses also will be required to pay unspecified restitution.
However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Dance told Greene that the cost of reinterment are estimated at more than $13,000.
The Brookses agreed to forfeit an all-terrain vehicle used to transport the remains from the burial site to Vernal.
Ricky Brooks entered his plea quickly. But Wilma Brooks said she was confused about the wording of the statute. She said she admitted to removing the remains, but not to defacing them.
Greene explained that while the statute contained several elements, she was guilty if she committed any one of them.
However, when Wilma Brooks continued to hesitate, Greene angrily said he would not accept her plea, and began to make arrangements for her to go to trial Monday as originally scheduled.
"I don't think this woman wants to plead guilty, and I'm not going to make her plead guilty," he said.
Wilma Brooks' attorney, Loni DeLand, then pleaded with Greene to ask his client once more, arguing that she did indeed understand the plea.
The judge did so, and Wilma Brooks quickly responded, "Guilty."
Federal investigators recovered the infant's mummified remains in June 1992 after serving a search warrant on the Brookses' Vernal business. The body, still strapped to a cradleboard, had been stuffed into a garbage bag and placed in a cardboard box.
The Brookses were arrested March 17, 1993. According to court records, they led authorities to an alcove overlooking Red Fleet Reservoir, just north of Vernal, where additional pieces of hide and sticks believed to be pieces of the cradleboard were found. Ten bones, all belonging to the infant, also were found.
It was the first time such remains had been found in the Uintah Basin, authorities said.
Experts determined the remains were about 1,250 years old. They also analyzed bone, did genetic testing on DNA from bone and skin tissue, looked at the weaving techniques on the cradleboard and examined the soil. The samples of wood and hide were radiocarbon dated to between 619 A.D. and 894 A.D.
The excavation of the remains was particularly disturbing to members of the Ute Tribe. In a letter to a federal prosecutor, tribal elder Clifford H. Duncan said it "deeply disturbs us when a grave is disturbed for the mere purpose of exploration or exploitation, whether it be for monetary reasons or scientific purposes."