The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday tossed out the death sentence of convicted murderer Steven James, who was sentenced to die for the brutal 1981 murder of a man he targeted for being gay.The reason: the Court feels James had ineffective counsel during the sentencing phase of his trial.See…
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has tossed out the death sentence of an Arizona death row inmate who was sentenced to die for the brutal 1981 murder of a man he targeted for being gay.Inmate Steven Craig James, 53, who’s been on death row for nearly 20 years, will…
Valley attorney Mark Goldman must have taken a memory pill since we last talked to him. In today’s testimony during discipline proceedings for former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas,, Goldman described how Thomas assigned him to dig up information about County Supervisor Don Stapley in 2007.Goldman, a wealthy lawyer…
Over the past several weeks, the Tempe Police Department says at least two groups of thieves have stolen iPhones and other electronic devices from at least eight Arizona State University students on or near the university’s Tempe campus.The most recent heist happened Monday night.According to the Tempe P.D., the thefts…
Kurtis Palmateer was arrested Saturday night after he called police to let them know that he’d just tried to kill his grandmother. Her offense: she failed to cook his dinner and has an annoying dog.According to court records obtained by New Times, Palmateer called police about 11:30 p.m. Saturday and…
Vito Renee Oliva probably would have been cited for a minor traffic violation when police attempted to pull him over early Saturday morning. But he tried to run from cops — choking a police dog in the process — and is now charged with multiple felony.According to court documents obtained…
A Scottsdale burglary victim used his mobile phone’s tracking app last night to pinpoint the locations of two suspects, who were then arrested by police.A short while before the high-tech bust, two people reported to the cops that a couple of dudes had broken into their home near the Loop…
A 1-year-old is dead after getting shot in the head by one of two masked men who broke into the Mesa apartment where the boy was sleeping this morning.Mesa Sergeant Ed Wessing tells New Times the boy was sleeping with four other children on a pullout sofa in his grandmother’s…
A Buckeye woman came home on Wednesday to a shocking sight: A man she knew was performing oral sex on her mentally disabled, 19-year-old son.Her son is too severely disabled to speak or give consent to sexual activity, court records state. The woman called 9-1-1- after the 26-year-old suspect, Stephen…
d Moriarity, Lisa Aubuchon’s pro-bono lawyer from Montana, has helped represent celebrity clients from Imelda Marcos to the family of Karen Silkwood.According to his former partner, Gerry Spence, Moriarity was born under a mineshaft.Since his opening statement in the State Bar disciplinary hearings for former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas,…
Just looked at an e-mail from Jennifer Liewer, the on-the-spot public information officer for the Arizona Supreme Court:David Hendershott, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s disgraced former chief deputy, is set to testify next week in the disciplinary hearings for former County Attorney Andrew Thomas.That ought to be good. After an…
Gilbert police received a call yesterday afternoon from a man reporting that his 2-year-old son wasn’t breathing. That man was 25-year-old Jonathan Cole, and the reason his son wasn’t breathing, as police would later discover, is because Cole squeezed the life out of him.According to court records obtained by New…
Admitted pederast Luis Mejia Ortiz was in Maricopa County Superior Court today, where he pleaded guilty to charges that he molested his girlfriend’s 9-year-old daughter on several occasions.In all, Ortiz pleaded guilty to one count of child molestation and three counts of attempted child molestation. Initially, Ortiz was charged with…
Tempe police announced today that they’ve made an arrest in last week’s murder of 64-year-old Bonnie Raudman.Raudman was found dead inside her Tempe home in the 2700 block of West Minton Drive on Friday morning by a friend who’d gone to her house to check on her.According to the Tempe…
Eric Morales, 26, was found murdered and partially buried in the desert North of Gila Bend last month, and yesterday the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office announced it’s arrested a suspect: a man who was living in Morales’ house at the time of his disappearance.Morales was last seen alive by family…
UPDATE: See the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office’s explanation for not charging Balmaceda here.A former Glendale cop accused of sexting several teenage girls, and sexually abusing another, won’t be charged with any crimes.Police recommended that former Glendale Officer Christopher Balmaceda be charged with one count of sexual abuse and four counts…
Phoenix police found the body of a man in the bottom of his pool last night who just happened to be a suspected kid-diddler.Phoenix Sergeant Steve Martos tells New Times that detectives went to the Phoenix home of 58-year-old James Ziarnick about 9 p.m. yesterday to talk to him about…
James Louis Baker, 54, is a bus driver for the Paradise Valley Unified School District. He also seems to think 13-year-old girls are scouring the Internet for 54-year-old bus drivers to have sex with.We hate to break his heart, but they’re not. However, cops posing as 13-year-old girls are another…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s Human Smuggling Unit arrested a U.S. Border Patrol agent last night as he was allegedly speeding down State Route 85 in possession of oxycodone and fake marijuana.According to the MCSO, the HSU was patrolling a known drug-smuggling route when they bumped into Michel Atondo, who…
The only reason we requested the arrest report for Bruce Nicholas Wardell was because we were so impressed/terrified by his epic mullet. What he allegedly did to get arrested is just as horrific as his frizzy “party in the back.”Wardell is accused of watching porn in front of his girlfriend’s…
As if rush hour in Phoenix isn’t miserable enough, about 8 this morning, the southbound State Route 51 was briefly closed by Department of Public Safety officers as they chased a wayward rabbit off the freeway.That’s right — they shut down the highway to rescue a rabbit.DPS spokesman Bart Graves…
To be honest, the only reason we requested the arrest report for Bruce Nicholas Wardell was because we were so impressed/terrified by his epic mullet. What he allegedly did to get arrested is just as horrific as his frizzy “party in the back.”Wardell was arrested Tuesday and is currently charged…
