A three-day bench trial has been scheduled for Bryan Teague, the Peoria man who authorities say admitted to starting last summer’s “Mistake Peak” fire with a propane tank. Despite his admission, Teague has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges: carelessly placing or throwing a substance that could cause a…
Police arrested Christopher Jurgens yesterday with thousands of images of child porn on his computer and a garage full of coloring books, toys, and Hello Kitty gear. Jurgens, 46, admitted he prefers boys in the 12- to 15-year-old age range, but has “seen children younger,” according to a police report. …
James Oliver Drorbaugh, 35, will get four to six years in prison when he’s sentenced on May 6 for possessing child pornography, his plea agreement shows. Drorbaugh, who’s lived in Payson and Chandler, was busted in 2011 after an undercover FBI agent downloaded child porn from his computer using a…
Clint Hickman, whose family name graces egg cartons in local grocery stores — the ones with the chicken wearing sunglasses and a tuxedo jacket — was chosen by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to be the newest supervisor.Hickman was one of more than a dozen people who applied for…
A 15-year-old girl faces a charge of murder, as an adult, for allegedly shooting and killing a 17-year-old boy earlier this week while she was playing around with a gun they stole in a home burglary.Ladajianna Mosely — who was born in 1997 –said she thought she had unloaded the…
The Chandler PD arrested Alison Stewart for suspected DUI after she ditched her kid at a park and passed out in her car next to her meth pipe, according to police. Stewart’s 4-year-old daughter was playing with another kid at Desert Breeze Park on Monday, when she asked another parent…
After stealing a car and speeding away from police, all while intoxicated, Gilbert Griego, who was also wanted on a felony warrant, couldn’t figure out why he had been pulled over, according to police. Phoenix PD watched Griego make an “abrupt and sudden” turn on 34th Street, and as an officer…
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, pleaded not guilty this morning to murder charges.Champagne, 42, has an extensive record of murder-related crimes, allegedly. Champagne, who was already convicted of second-degree…
The capital murder trial of Jodi Arias continued with several delays today, focusing on the testimony of a local doctor who claims Arias’ alleged amnesia seems real. The theory of Scottsdale psychologist Richard Samuels was tarnished badly by deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez, as we detailed in Monday’s blog…
Phoenix police believe they’ve found the man responsible for the murder of teenager Pete Cadriel in 1998. Israel Lomeli, 32, was arrested yesterday at his mother’s home in the 6700 block of West Butler Avenue and booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree murder and possession of methamphetamine. Pete Cadriel…
Christopher Clark must know a few things about temptation. The 53-year-old Mesa man reportedly is obsessed with videos of little kids having sex. Meanwhile, his wife — a former preschool teacher — has kept the home full of little kids, as she runs an in-home babysitting service and takes care…
The Gilbert mother who shoved feces in her 10-year-old son’s mouth and shoved his toothbrush in his anus, among other abuses, has pleaded guilty in the case as part of a plea deal.Jennifer Barnes pleaded guilty today to two counts of child abuse, but the other 11 charges will be…
A Chandler man who claimed he “accidentally” shot his ex-girlfriend in the head with a rifle in 2011 was found guilty yesterday of manslaughter.Eric Coulter, who was 18 at the time, killed his ex-girlfriend Monique Cota with what the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office calls a “military-style assault rifle.”See also:-Eric Coulter…
Prosecutor Juan Martinez hammered a local psychologist over his evaluation of murder defendant Jodi Arias today, at one point asking him if he had memory problems. Richard Samuels, who has an office in Scottsdale, evaluated Arias while she was in jail following her 2008 slaying of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, spending…
Early this morning, Mesa PD tased and arrested a man who answered the door with “war paint” streaked across his face, and who on other occasions had greeted police armed with a sword. Neighbors in the 500 block of Alma School Road called police because they heard yelling and banging…
A retired Mesa cop is accused of molesting two kids, as well as sharing child porn with a man who was recently arrested in a Homeland Security investigation.Search warrants served in the case provided police with several allegedly smoking guns, like the picture of Millsaps ejaculating into Hello Kitty underwear…
Murder suspect Jodi Arias wrapped up her 18th (or 19th, by some accounts) day on the stand this week with trial watchers wondering whether her lengthy testimony helped or hurt her. We’re still predicting the jury will hand Arias a death sentence, for reasons that will be explained below. See…
Debra Milke, on Death Row since her 1990 conviction for conspiring to have her 4-year-old son killed in 1989, won’t be released from prison anytime soon. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Milke’s conviction yesterday, raising the possibility that she could be set free in 30 days. But…
The convictions and death sentence of Debbie Milke — who’s been on death row in Arizona for more than two decades in her son’s murder — have been overturned by a federal appeals court.Milke’s 4-year-old son, Christopher, went “missing” in December 1989 after a friend and a roommate took the…
The Phoenix mom who spent Christmas ’11 choking one of her kids — and threatening both of her kids with a butcher knife — has pleaded guilty to a charge in the case.Jutrina Tillman, who was 32 at the time, had been drinking that Christmas and was mad at her…
A Mesa woman who was spotted holding her 3-year-old son facedown in puddles on Friday claimed that Jesus told her to drown the boy, according to authorities.Perhaps not surprisingly, the woman, 30-year-old Victoria Soliz, eventually would tell a doctor that she uses crystal meth as medication, according to court documents…
It may or may not be hard to believe, but the individual pictured to the right — who has a criminal history that includes being an accessory to the murder of a cop — is accused of stabbing a woman.Frank Banashley, 31, has been out of prison (for a different…
