42-year-old Negie Fallis, the lead suspect in the 2018 disappearance of Round Valley’s Khadijah Britton, has been released from thirteen months in federal prison and now sits in the Mendocino County jail awaiting court.
Khadijah Britton went missing over four-and-a-half years ago. During that time, Fallis, the man law enforcement suspects made her disappear, has spent nearly two-and-a-half years behind bars. Fallis has managed to elude criminal prosecution for his suspected role in the disappearance of Khadijah.
On the night of February 8, 2018, Fallis allegedly forced Britton into a vehicle at gunpoint outside of a Covelo residence. After this incident, Britton was never seen or heard from again. Since that night, Fallis’s alleged culpability in Britton’s disappearance has become public knowledge but remains untested in a court of law.
Just six days after pointing a gun at Khadijah Britton and forcing her into a car, Fallis was booked in the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office for multiple felonies associated with Britton’s disappearance including kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, corporal injury to a spouse, and burglary. However, these charges were dismissed.
The Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office would go forward with a felony charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. This charge would stick. In December 2018, Fallis was sentenced to four years in state prison after pleading no contest to felony firearms charges.
Instead of serving four years, was released in fifteen months. Fallis was back in Mendocino County by February 2020. Upon release, he was immediately in court because he was on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) at the time of the 2018 incident that resulted in the firearm charges. These charges violated the terms of Fallis’s PRCS. For violating those terms, Fallis served sixty days at the Mendocino County jail.
On June 4, 2020, just four months after being freed from state prison, deputies encountered Fallis on a rural Covelo road and found him with drug paraphernalia, a stolen handgun, and a converted rifle. He was arrested.
This incident resulted in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issuing a felony warrant for Fallis. He was transferred to federal custody in October 2020 and by late August 2021, he would plead guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. A judge sentenced Fallis to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Instead of serving over two years, Fallis was released from federal prison in thirteen months. On September 9, 2022, Fallis was back in the Mendocino County Courthouse.
Fallis’s current case once again revolves around his PRCS. His actions in June 2020 violated the terms of his PRCS resulting in an automatic hearing to assess his adherence to his terms. A bench warrant was issued for him back in October 2020 when he was transferred into federal custody. Upon his release from federal prison earlier this month, police acted on the warrant, and back behind bars he went.
Court documents indicate Fallis’s PRCS was revoked pending a hearing, a maneuver used if the terms of PRCS are violated. This could result in jail or prison time. A hearing in Judge Keith Faulder’s courtroom at 1:30 p.m. today will determine the next steps.
The disappearance of Khadijah Britton has galvanized the Missing and Murder Indigenous Women movement in Mendocino County. Legacy periodicals, true crime documenters, podcasts, YouTubers, and reporters alike have examined Britton’s case which has proven one of Mendocino County’s most enduring crime stories of the modern era. Banners displaying her photograph, and her name, have been flown at NFL games, at Mt. Rushmore, and are common to see as bumper stickers and roadside signs throughout Northern California.
Law enforcement has expressed their deeply-held belief that the key to solving Britton’s case lies in the community. In February 2021, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall stood alongside Khadijah’s mother Connie, and FBI Agent Scott Shelbe imploring those who knew of Britton’s fate to come forward.
Britton’s family has advocated for more law enforcement resources to find their missing loved one and spread her story to advocate for the plight of Native American women, 84.3% of which suffer some form of domestic violence according to the Department of Justice.
Now, the man implicated in their daughter’s disappearance has once again returned to Mendocino County. Negie Fallis’s time behind bars is likely little consolation to a family who prays that one day they will be able to bring their daughter home.
If anyone in the community has information regarding the disappearance of Khadijah Britton, contact the FBI at (415)553-7400 or www.tips.fbi.gov. Tips can also be provided directly to MCSO by calling (707)463-4086 or accessing their anonymous tip line at www.wetip.com.
Remember, despite statements from law enforcement and members of the community, Negie Fallis’s role in the disappearance of Khadijah Britton has not been proven in a court of law. In accordance with the legal principle of the presumption of innocence, any individual described should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Family of this poor woman has suffered so much, those responsible need to do the right thing and come forward with information so that this family knows what happened to their daughter. Sending prayers out to the family
I believe the reward is $50,000.. That is enough money to pack up a life and restart / reinvent a new life. If someone knows something this is an opportunity knocking. The feeling of not knowing only punishes the innocent.
$85 K
Not just those responsible. People know. A number of people know what happened to her. And they refuse to come forward and give up the info. It’s absolute bullshit.
More info in this video…
The tribes and Law Enforcement should offer a reward. This might prompt someone who knows something to come forward.
The guy kidnapped her and they can’t prove nothing. Lie Detector Test. DNA on his clothing. Sounds like O.J. Simpson.i bet there’s tons of cases like this sadly. I picture that guy killing her in the mountains, because no one saw anything he walks free. That easy to kill somebody and get away with it. Sad.