Dominic Chagolla will be spending the rest of his life in prison for murdering his mother in December 2010.A jury convicted Chagolla of first-degree murder in late April for stabbing Maria Chagolla to death, and Judge Sherry Stephens sentenced him this morning to natural life in prison.Maria Chagolla’s body was…
Maria Rivera, the 21-year-old woman accused of shaking her 11-month-old daughter Stormi to near-death, had two prior run-ins with Child Protective Services involving allegations of abuse against the girl.Rivera claims she only shook Stormi because she fell unconscious after falling down some stairs, although Phoenix police detectives say hospital staff…
We’re not at the Maricopa County Superior Court, but a court spokesman tells New Times that “Burning Man” Michael Marin collapsed after his guilty verdict was announced.The Arizona Republic’s Michael Kiefer was in the courtroom, and is saying Marin had a seizure after the verdict was read — as Marin…
UPDATE: Michael Marin has been transported to a hospital. He collapsed shortly after the verdict was read.A jury found “Burning Man” Michael Marin guilty of arson of an occupied structure today for burning down his Biltmore Estates mansion in July 2009. Marin gave his explanation to New Times writer Paul…
Brian Dicamillo, 39, is accused of offering a 10-year-old boy one whole dollar to have sex with him.According to police, that’s just the start of what landed Dicamillo — and eventually, his wife — in jail.Did we mention Dicamillo’s a bus driver for the Deer Valley Unified School District?According to…
George Kuykendall is off to prison for 24 years after taking a plea deal in what Mesa police told New Times was “the worst case of child abuse [they’ve] seen where the child survives.”Kuykendall beat his 4-year-old daughter with a power cord so severely that her kidneys shut down after…
All three people accused of using Craigslist to find a dog to “fornicate” with have pleaded guilty.The charges stem from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s latest Craigslist bestiality case, in which a detective responded to a post on the website looking for a dog for sexual purposes, and the three…
After a few rounds of mental-competency hearings, Michael Crane — accused of murdering Paradise Valley couple Glenna and Lawrence Shapiro and Phoenix man Bruce Gaudet — would now like to represent himself against charges of murder, kidnapping, arson, and burglary.A court spokesman says Crane and his current attorney said in…
As the Tempe Police Department got verification earlier this month that the five burned bodies found in an SUV in the Vekol Valley were identified as James and Yafit Butwin and their three children, another group of five people was still apparently missing. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s theory was…
Scott Verbout’s the guy who edits the spelling and grammar for the writers of the Casa Grande Dispatch, online at TriValleyCentral.com.He’s also the guy who was arrested by Ak-Chin police last week for allegedly doing some creative writing of his own, which he sent, along with pictures of his penis, to…
Don’t let those conservative critics mislead you: The Arizona Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Judge is really a big softie. Judge William O’Neil has given Rachel Alexander, the ethics-bending former underling of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, another chance to appeal the ordered suspension of her law license. O’Neil, after upbraiding former…
Believe it or not, an elected official in Arizona is pleased with something the federal government did.Attorney General Tom Horne handed out his thoughts on the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division suing Colorado City — the town on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home…
Colorado City — the town on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home — is being sued by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for religious and housing discrimination.The feds say the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Jeffs are still…
If the description of a shooting suspect includes the New York Yankees logo tattooed to his forehead, it really cuts down on the guesswork.That’s how 21-year-old Carlos Benito Sturgus got caught making another awful life decision last week in Mesa, as police say he shot an innocent bystander while he…
Maria Rivera made her initial appearance before a judge today after being arrested for allegedly shaking her 11-month-old daughter, Stormi Rivera, who’s not expected to survive her injuries.Defendants are most often silent during these appearances, listening to the judge explain what their charges are and the conditions of their release…
Welcome to justice in America, where it doesn’t even seem odd that you can admit to police that you committed a crime, then admit it on television, then go before a judge and say, wasn’t me.That’s the route 32-year-old Kristopher Harvey took today, pleading not guilty today to charges related…
Maria Rivera’s 11-month-old daughter, Stormi Rivera, is not expected to survive injuries sustained while with her mother yesterday, which Rivera claims were caused by the girl falling down the stairs.Detectives say hospital staff informed them “the only way to sustain these types of injuries [is] by severely shaking the baby.”That…
Charges were dismissed against seven members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who were accused of being involved in a 2010 shootout with Vagos, a rival gang.The two clubs shot it off in Chino Valley, north of Prescott, in August 2010, as at least 50 shots were fired, although no…
Unlike some people, Ramon Carrillo remembered to put his kids inside his car.The problem is, cops say he passed out drunk in the driver’s seat, leaving his kids — ages 1 and 2 — with nothing but 120-degree heat, a handgun, and a passed-out dad.According to court documents obtained by…
At age 93, Julius Elmer Grosso of Scottsdale is one of those senior citizens who doesn’t want to give up his car keys — even after a two-hour drinking binge. Cops say the stubborn nonagenerian gave them a hard time during a DUI investigation over the weekend, resulting in Grosso…
Rachel Alexander, the right-wing blogger and ex-prosecutor under former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, has blown her chance to appeal her law-license suspension by failing to file her opening brief on time. The former deputy county attorney had her license suspended in April for six months and a day because…
Another example of how not to be a parent was in a Maricopa County courtroom this morning, as 19-year-old Catalina Clouser pleaded not guilty to driving about 12 miles before realizing she had left her baby on the roof of her car.That incident, which occurred on June 1, came a…
