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…
A judge sentenced a former Pima County Sheriff’s deputy for his role in ripping off drug smugglers, attempting to distribute marijuana, and aiding a drug trafficking organization. Francisco Jimenez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to commit offenses against the United States: stealing government…
Scottsdale police have identified the man shot and killed this morning by officers as 45-year-old Thomas Hawes.As you could probably tell by the orange jumpsuit Hawes is wearing in the photo on the right, Hawes has a bit of a criminal history, including a short stint in prison.See also:-Scottsdale Cops…
A drive to a local bootlegger for a bottle of vodka turned into an allegedly meth-addled murder, according to Navajo Nation police. Randly Begay, a member of the nation, his girlfriend, and a friend, piled into a gray GMC Safari van Monday morning and drove to near Tuba City to…
UPDATE: Thomas Hawes Identified as Man Fatally Shot by Scottsdale Cops; Five Detectives on LeaveScottsdale police officers shot and killed a man this morning who was wanted for questioning in sex crimes.Police haven’t released the 45-year-old man’s name, but Scottsdale Officer David Pubins says in an e-mail that the man…
The man who kind of made Governor Jan Brewer’s comments about headless bodies a reality pleaded no contest to cutting a man’s head off in Chandler in 2010.”Law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded,” Brewer said back…
The ACLU is trying to find out the extent of “militarization” of police forces across the country, including 10 law enforcement agencies in Arizona.Arizona’s ACLU, as well as those in 22 other states, are filing public records requests “to determine the extent to which local police departments are using federally…
Court documents released in the arrest of convicted murderer Alan Champagne show how police believe Champagne’s responsible for two bodies in a homemade coffin in a backyard in Phoenix.Champagne, 42, was arrested yesterday on first-degree murder charges, a day after landscapers unearthed human remains in a wooden box, buried at…
Sure enough, Phoenix police believe Alan Champagne — the convicted murderer who happened to be a former resident of the house where human remains were found yesterday — is responsible for those remains.Additionally, Phoenix police say there were actually two bodies in the coffin, which was unearthed yesterday by landscapers,…
