Overview
- A Navajo County grand jury indicted Michael Abatti on Dec. 23, and he was arrested that afternoon in El Centro, California.
- Abatti, 63, was booked into the Imperial County Jail on a first-degree murder charge and is pending extradition to Arizona.
- Detectives executed Dec. 2 search warrants on Abatti family residences, properties, vehicles and camp trailers in El Centro, and officials say seized evidence informed probable cause.
- Investigators say evidence indicates Abatti traveled from California to Pinetop on Nov. 20, fatally shot 59-year-old Kerri Ann Abatti, then returned to California.
- Kerri Ann Abatti was found with a gunshot wound at her Pinetop home on Nov. 20, and the case has drawn attention given the couple’s contentious divorce and Abatti’s prominence in Imperial Valley agriculture.