Let’s try this one again: Daniel Wayne Cook has a date with death.After reaching into the excuse bag over and over again to avoid execution — with the U.S. Supreme Court taking the bait at the last minute more than a year ago — Cook’s execution now is scheduled for…
A Tempe man who tried to rape an employee at Phoenix’s Arizona Grand Resort in December pleaded guilty to a pair of charges related to the attack.Michael Robert Martinez, 31, pleaded to attempted kidnapping and attempted sexual assault this morning, more than five months after he failed to rape the…
Eduardo Mercado is accused of drowning his 21-year-old friend Saturday afternoon at a pond south of Lake Pleasant, and police say the thing that really pushed Mercado over the edge was when the friend decided to steer his boat in the wrong direction. Peoria police say meth also was a…
The Tempe Police Department’s theory that the five bodies found in the Vekol Valley this weekend were victims of a murder/suicide continues to check out.Yesterday, the Pima County medical examiner identified the two adult bodies found in the SUV in the desert as James and Yafit Butwin, and sure enough,…
Disbarred and apparently delusional ex-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas still is trying to play the everyone’s-corrupt-except-me card, and he’s carrying around a piece of wood and pretending he’s a movie character in his attempt to prove it.One would expect that after being pegged as corrupt by just about everyone — and an…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s claims that a “violent drug cartel” murdered five people in the Vekol Valley are looking more outlandish and unfounded by the hour.Two of the five charred bodies found inside a burned SUV have been identified by the Pima County medical examiner as James and Yafit…
The Arizona Legislature didn’t really feel the need to replace the police force in Colorado City with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, so Attorney General Tom Horne’s pulling out Plan B.The AG’s office announced today that it’s sending $420,000 to the Sheriff’s Office for overtime pay to patrol…
Lee Charles Lubonne, the self-described “sex pig” charged in two sexual assaults, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this morning.Judging from what sex-crime detectives found in his house, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office thought there was a “possibility” there were more victims, and Lubonne, a 44-year-old father of two from Litchfield…
Residential burglary is a slightly safer activity than Russian roulette, but sooner or later, burglars are bound to run into someone with a gun who does not take kindly to scumbags in his house. One of those types would be cops, who all have guns, and aren’t too sympathetic toward…
Say what you will about unorthodox parenting techniques, but Surprise police officers think discipline shouldn’t involve two “highly intoxicated” boys in their underwear crying, screaming, and vomiting.Cops say that’s the route Kristopher Harvey took on his boys Monday, and that earned him a trip to jail.According to court documents obtained…
Steven Saldana took a plea agreement that sends him to prison for a little more than two years, stemming from the case of the 4-month-old baby found with a cigarette burn, 14 broken bones, and bruising all over her body.Angelica Jimenez — the Chandler woman designated by Child Protective Services as…
Tempe police detectives are pretty sure the family of James and Yafit Butwin was killed in a murder/suicide, not “connected to the violent drug cartel,” as Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu suggests.The five charred, still-unidentified bodies were found in an SUV in the Vekol Valley this weekend, and the embattled…
A 22-year-old mentally disabled man is dead after sustaining at least a dozen injuries, allegedly at the hands of family members.Joshua and Carlena Pinkerton, the man’s brother-in-law and sister, brought him to the hospital Friday after he collapsed in the bathtub, and a doctor called Phoenix police after noticing bruising, scrapes, puncture…
Browsing through the “Mugshot of the Day Leader Board” on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office website always brings a surprise, like the Sunday booking of Vicente Valles, who has the City of Tempe logo tattooed on his chin, and an Arizona State University logo on his cheek.It kind of reminded…
U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake’s final order in the proposed settlement by Maricopa County to Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox: Pay the woman.In an order on Friday, Wake granted Wilcox’s motion to enforce the settlement order, stating that Wilcox “shall have judgment” in the amount agreed, plus an additional $28,000…
Turns out, the baby belonging to 19-year-old Catalina Clouser was allegedly put into harm’s way by two acts of moronic driving Friday night.As we told you this morning, Phoenix police say Clouser put her kid in a car seat late that night, but forgot to put the baby/car seat into…
Update: Catalina Clouser’s Baby Was Also in the Car During Boyfriend’s DUI, Before Getting Dumped in Phoenix Intersection Catalina Clouser put her 2-month-old baby in a car seat after smoking some weed with her boyfriend at a Phoenix park Friday night. The minor detail she missed was that the 19-year-old…
Ashley Buckman and her boyfriend James Edwards — in jail after Buckman’s 4-year-old daughter died Thursday night — had no prior contact with Child Protective Services before their arrests last week.Toryn Buckman was pronounced brain-dead when she was brought to Phoenix Children’s Hospital on Wednesday night, after what Edwards told…
Ashley Buckman’s 4-year-old daughter died last night, just one day after Buckman and her boyfriend, James Edwards, were arrested for horrific alleged abuses of the girl.Toryn Buckman was pronounced brain dead when she was brought to Phoenix Children’s Hospital on Wednesday night, after what Edwards told police was five or…
UPDATE: 4-year-old Toryn Buckman has died.A 4-year-old girl is brain dead at Phoenix Children’s Hospital after an alleged series of abuses at the hands of her mother and her boyfriend.Ashley Buckman and her boyfriend James Edwards, both 22 years old, were arrested yesterday after police were called to their apartment,…
Andrew Thomas is a failed politician in serious need of good publicity.After being disbarred in April for unethical acts as Maricopa County Attorney, Thomas also wants to strike back at the judiciary system, which he feels screwed him over.So now, he’s putting himself on public display as the face of…
Mark Dixon of Casa Grande is ticked off at Arizona Supreme Court Disciplinary Judge William O’Neil, that much is clear.O’Neil, former presiding judge for the Pinal County Superior Court, had the contractor come out to his property to do maintenance and they had a “very close friendship,” according to an…
