Associated Press Shiloh Edsitty, left, receives a hand-carved Cherokee walking stick from Steve Rainbolt after a memorial service for Edsitty's mother, Teresa Tilden, at Central Christian Church in Henderson on Tuesday.
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - A 13-year-old boy stabbed and orphaned in a knife attack is awaiting a court decision whether he'll be raised by a university professor in upstate New York or with the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
Shiloh Edsitty said Tuesday he turned over to Las Vegas police a letter he received recently from James Menor Valdez, 29, the man charged with stabbing Edsitty and killing his mother, Teresa Tilden, 31.
Edsitty urged Valdez to confess and avoid a trial.
"He killed my mother. He thinks he can get away with it? Come on. There is so much evidence, it's not even funny," the sixth-grader said.
Edsitty's return to Las Vegas was for a guardianship hearing with his temporary guardian, Vivian Powell, and an emotional church memorial service for his mother. Edsitty was hospitalized during Tilden's funeral in November.
"I really love her and miss her very much," Edsitty said late Tuesday at Central Christian Church in Henderson. "Mom wanted me to have the greatest life even though she didn't have one."
Earlier, a judge ordered Clark County Child Protective Services investigators to visit Powell's home in St. Bonaventure, N.Y., where Edsitty has been living since December.
Powell met Edsitty's mother while teaching for several years at a school on a Navajo reservation in St. George, Utah. She has known the boy since he was an infant, and he has lived with her family under an informal arrangement with Tilden.
Navajo tribal officials have raised concerns about Edsitty learning about his heritage and culture.
A tribal letter to Clark County Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle did not ask that the matter be turned over to the tribe, but requested that Child Protective Services officials visit Powell's home.
Hardcastle noted that Edsitty's father and other relatives had not sought custody. He ordered the results of the visit to Powell's home be submitted at a hearing Feb. 28.
"They're a good family," Edsitty said of the Powells. "I have been with them for 91Ú2 years, and I know them all."
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