Jeffrey Martinson, who not long ago was facing a possible cell on death row, has won a new lease on his legal life with a momentous court ruling ordering a new trial. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sally Duncan’s seven-page ruling overturned last November’s guilty jury verdicts of first-degree murder…
Someone just E-mailed us the attached here story by reporter Jeremy Duda of the Arizona Capitol Times. seems to provide possible direction for the sudden departure last week of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s chief criminal deputy, Jim Keppel. Good work by Duda, who obviously had been working on this…
Keppel isn’t giving the specifics of his departure, but the rumors have been flying around town like fungoes at Salt River Flats. Among the better ones:–Keppel is cooperating with an unspecified law enforcement agency concerning an investigation into his former boss, Horne. –Keppel just couldn’t take working for the highly political Horne…
The sacking of Arizona State University athletic director (with a fancier title) Lisa Love came as no big surprise, especially after the fiasco following the firing of head football Coach Dennis Erickson. Sun Devils’ fans (and there still are some) watched with some horror as the rookie-league attempts to find a…
A Superior Court judge yesterday afternoon granted a defense motion and ordered a new trial for convicted child killer Jeffrey Martinson…
[jump] “At just after 9:00 this morning Phoenix Police officers went to the area on N. Central Ave./Roosevelt in response to a naked person standing by a statue. Upon arrival, the officers found a nude female. There was no complainant and the woman was transported to a Local Alcohol Recovery…
Good ballgame to watch last night down at the US Airways Center, but San Antonio’s veteran stars proved too much in the end, as the Spurs pulled away late from the Phoenix Suns to win 107-100…
James Granvil Wallace, a 62-year-old murderer from Tucson who has been on death row for more than a quarter-century, now will spend the rest of his life in prison after a highly controversial Arizona Supreme Court ruling. The court’s unanimous reasoning for allowing Wallace to escape execution: “We find that…
We stopped at a red light at Central a few hours ago, ready to turn left onto Roosevelt. People who live or work in downtown Phoenix know the quirky little park at that busy intersection. Central and Roosevelt, 9 a.m. It’s the location of that magnificent 24-foot-tall metal sculpture of a “man”…
The judge in the Jeffrey Martinson murder case told the attorneys at a hearing this morning that she will issue rulings on critical defense motions in a few days…
We wrote a recent cover story about the twisted case of former Ahwatukee resident Jeffrey Martinson, convicted late last year in the child-abuse murder of his 5-year-old son, Josh. Among other issues, the piece considered allegations of juror misconduct that led to an extended hearing in the courtroom of Maricopa…
Tipoff is less than two hours away at the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, and the streets are teeming with folks from “back East.” It actually feels like a “real” city, a real downtown. We’re speaking of the NCAA West Regionals, which include four Sweet 16 teams, one which…
We most admired departing ASU swingman Trent Lockett this past season after he badly twisted his ankle in a mid-January game against the Oregon State Beavers. …
Robert Arcieri, a former Phoenix businessman and exceptionally devious criminal who was on the lam for a quarter-century, was sentenced to ten years in prison this morning…
We wrote last week about our weird experience watching (on TV) an NCAA first-round tournament game between Southern Mississippi and Kansas State. t was memorable only for the chants that came from the Southern Miss pep band as KSU player Angel Rodriguez stepped to the line to attempt two foul…
Like millions of other hard-working Americans, we took pause yesterday (just occasionally, boss!) to sneak some peaks at the first-round games of the men’s NCAA basketball tourney. The annual March Madness first-round Thursdays and Fridays are among our favorite days of the year. Thirty-two flippin’ games in 48 hours, and…
That the Arizona Wildcats won 23 games this season with what they had is a testament to head coach Sean Miller’s ability to get the most of his players. That they came one missed shot against Colorado and a devastating loss in Tempe to ASU from a berth in NCAA March…
Mike Terribile and Treasure Van Dreumel made lots of money defending recently convicted murderer Jeff Martinson on the taxpayer’s dime. The actual sum is almost $1 million per attorney over the past 28 months for work in the tragic and highly controversial case. New Times wrote about State of Arizona…
We often attend the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in Los Angeles. It’s a few days in downtown LA, where we always visit the old city library (beautiful), walk everywhere (safer than you think), stay on the cheap (always good as long as the bedbugs don’t bite), and watch a whole…
When Grant Hill stepped to the foul line with seconds left in the game and the Phoenix Suns up by two points, we thought he’d be money. Hill shoots about 80 percent from the stripe, and the game on the line, Clunk and clunk. The usually reliable Duke grad probably…
Robert Towery, a 47-year-old Mesa man who spent the last two decades of his life on death, was executed late this morning at the state prison in Florence. Towery’s last-minute appeals didn’t pass muster, and prison officials injected the inmate with the poisonous chemicals that killed him.He was charged in…
Stick a pitchfork in the Arizona State men’s basketball team, which got thumped last night by Stanford in a first-round Pac-12 Conference tournament game. The 85-65 loss at LA’s Staples Center in front of about as many folks as watched the Sun Devils this year in Tempe at the Wells…
