The head of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office’s Asset Recovery Bureau, Peter Spaw, has admitted to working on a racketeering lawsuit he knew was unsupported by evidence. Yet the county attorney, Bill Montgomery, won’t say a word about it. Does the admission and potential two years’ probation of his law…
The most interesting developments in the sensational trial of man-killer Jodi Arias this week had nothing to do with the boring, skepticism-inducing testimony by a domestic-violence expert. Two other key events had the public’s attention: The booting of Juror #5 from the jury panel and her subsequent return to the…
If a 25-year-old guy asks a woman if he can date her 13-year-old daughter, there’s only one reasonable response — hell no, you may not.Jose Zarate apparently found this response so unreasonable that he killed the mother of the 13-year-old girl he was chasing, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s…
The 15-year-old Tolleson girl charged with murder, as an adult, for allegedly shooting and killing her sister’s 17-year-old boyfriend has pleaded not guilty.Ladajianna Mosely — who was born in 1997 — told police she thought she had unloaded the .45-caliber handgun she and two others had just recently stolen after…
A retired Mesa cop accused of molesting two kids and sharing child porn with a man who recently was arrested in a Homeland Security investigation has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.Russell Millsaps, also known as Dean Millsaps, 66, was arrested by Mesa detectives a couple of weeks…
The Scottsdale Police Department’s second fatal officer-involved shooting this month was caught on camera, as a neighbor recorded the confrontation between the Scottsdale officer and 72-year-old Preston Phillips last month. Unfortunately, that 19-year-old neighbor released the video to KPHO Channel 5, which hacked up the video with some obnoxious editing,…
A group of men dressed up like a SWAT team and armed with assault rifles robbed and kidnapped three people connected to a pot-selling scheme last month in Litchfield Park. One of the terrified victims jumped from the trunk of a Jaguar going 60 mph while being taken to a…
No cop is going to look into this bag, Richard Miller must have thought early this morning at a Mesa CVS Pharmacy. A Mesa officer arrived at the CVS, 305 East Brown Road, about 4 a.m. after receiving reports of a troublesome trespasser. He found Miller, walking in circles and…
Jodi Arias’ defense team motioned for a mistrial on Monday, accusing one of the jurors of unspecified misconduct. Trial proceedings were postponed today, but defense attorney Kirk Numri still filed his motion to boot the juror off the panel. The motion comes a few days after Numri sought a mistrial…
In a case that sounds more like a zombie attack than a homicide report, Chandler police busted a 58-year-old trailer-park resident on Friday for allegedly killing his girlfriend and gnawing on her breasts. After Gerald Lee Culverson called paramedics to the home he shared with his deceased girlfriend, Deborah Courtney,…
Phoenix resident Steven Lomax Jr. shot and killed his sister’s husband, Richard Swann, on Easter Sunday morning, police say. At least one of the shots was fired while Lomax was on the phone with a 911 operator. After his arrest, Lomax told police he was tired of his brother-in-law’s alleged…
Michael Cohn, a 61-year-old Scottsdale resident, called the Scottsdale Police Department Wednesday morning to alert the authorities that he had just killed his wife of more than 26 years, Linda.The way events are described in court documents obtained by New Times, Cohn sounds like one of the most nonchalant murder…
The thousands of pages of documents recently released in the case of Jared Loughner’s murderous rampage, which left six people dead and injured 13, make one thing certain — Loughner exhibited some very strange behavior.In another example of this, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department detective wrote in his report that…
A 72-year-old man was shot and killed by Scottsdale police Wednesday in the department’s second fatal officer-involved shooting this month.Preston Phillips Jr. was shot by the officer around 6 p.m. after, police say, Phillips drove up next to the officer, pulled a handgun out of his holster, and “display[ed] it…
Jared Loughner kept photos of President Bill Clinton and Congressman Raul Grijalva and possibly a photograph of Congressman Ed Pastor, according to newly released documents.The detail is included is a report from a Pima County Sheriff’s Department detective in the thousands of pages of documents just released in the case…
Jared Loughner’s mom told Pima County Sheriff’s Department investigators that she thought her son was on “meth or something,” when she was interviewed the day her son went on a murder rampage, killing six people and injuring 13.In perhaps another sign that Loughner’s parents didn’t recognize a potential sign of…
Alan Champagne, the man Phoenix police believe is responsible for the deaths of two people found in a homemade coffin in a backyard earlier this month, apparently had some help in the murders and burial of the victims’ bodies.Champagne’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Elise Garcia, was arrested on Monday on charges related…
Thousands of pages of records have been released from Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation of Jared Loughner’s 2011 shooting that killed six people and injured 13, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, perhaps giving more insight into Loughner’s life.Interviews with Loughner’s parents show they had their concerns about Loughner’s mental health,…
Former Paradise Valley High School teacher Jordan Doneskey, who was having sex with a 17-year-old student — with approval from the girl’s mother — pleaded guilty to three charges related to his arrest.As part of a plea deal, Doneskey, who was 26 at the time of his arrest in August,…
A Phoenix woman is accused of shoving a vibrator into her 2-year-old son’s anus, and doctors told police that surgery will be required to remove it.According to court documents obtained by New Times, 21-year-old Rickesha Burns called police Sunday, reporting that her son was bleeding from his anus…
A Valley attorney and former Maricopa County medical examiner is accused of running over and killing a woman lying in a roadway while driving drunk, then driving away.Aimee Lorine Butel, listed in court documents obtained by New Times as an attorney for the Phoenix law firm Knapp & Roberts, is…
Saying that Genaro Silva was upset after finding out that his girlfriend had another guy in her Mesa apartment is an understatement.According to police, Silva’s girlfriend was still trying to clean up the man’s blood from her apartment two days after Silva beat the man to death with a hammer,…
