A Peoria woman is missing and cops need your help finding her. Maria Delores Chagolla, 50, was last seen dropping off her adult son about 9 a.m. yesterday in the area of 8700 West Butler Drive in Peoria. She never made it home and hasn’t been heard from since.In a…
Violence in Mexico seems to be increasing, with wars between drug gangs claiming a record 12,456 lives from January to November of this year, a top Mexican official said today. All told, said Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, 30,196 people have died in the drug wars since President Felipe Calderon…
We’ve done a few pretty intense stories on Pinal County sheriff’s deputy Louie Puroll and his troubled (and troubling) account of getting shot in the desert south of Phoenix last April 30. …
A guilty verdict was returned this afternoon in the case of a Mesa man accused of murdering a 19-year-old Gilbert woman in January of 2007.Jonathan Burns, 29, was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and misconduct with a weapon for the January 28, 2007, murder of Jackie Hartman,…
An airport-based agent with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Atlanta, Georgia, believed he was shipping drug money and illegal guns to Mexican cartel members in Arizona, officials said Thursday. Agent Devon Samuels, 45, was among 13 people arrested today on suspicion of a multitude of crimes, including taking payoffs from — and providing…
Three Chandler schools were put in lockdown this morning after an unknown suspect assaulted a 72-year-old man in his home and then fled on a bicycle.The three schools — Chandler High School, Galveston Elementary School, and St. Mary-Basha Elementary School — are no longer in lockdown, but the suspect is…
It’s official: Jeffrey Phillips, the flashy frontman for the Phillips and Associates personal injury law firm, will not be allowed to practice law for six months thanks to a decision handed down today by the Arizona State Supreme Court.Following a lengthy investigation last year by the Arizona State Bar Association,…
Well that didn’t take long…Less than 24 hours after Johnny “Irish” McNeel tried to shoot a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy, he was captured in Mesa, MCSO Sergeant Jesse Spurgin confirms to New Times.We figured it was only a matter of time before McNeel got nabbed, as you can see in…
A Phoenix man found shot to death at his home the day before his 6-year-old son was found murdered in an alley was a drug dealer, court records show.The boy, Xavier Jaquez, was found shot to death Tuesday morning in an alley near his mother’s home, near 65th Avenue and…
To cop a line from the Notorious B.I.G., “Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot!”That’s what Republican state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce might as well be saying with a recent e-mail announcing a fundraiser on January 7, 2011, just three days before Arizona’s legislative session begins. Suggested donation: $250 a pop.It’s…
Rapper DMX pleaded guilty this morning to a felony probation violation, and Judge Christine Mulleneaux sentenced him to a year in jail. DMX (real name: Earl Simmons) had been on probation since July, after serving four months in Maricopa County jails for a previous probation violation. On November 18, he…
Phoenix police shot and killed an armed domestic violence suspect early this morning and are currently seeking another man — a potential victim — in the incident.Phoenix police got a call about 1:45 a.m. that a man with a knife was running amok at the Phoenician Palms apartment complex near…
Someone wrote you a while back wondering why Mexicans have made a mess of their beautiful country. You got all bent out of shape because he called Mexico a Third World country instead of a “bottom tier” First World country. I think you missed the point of the argument. Mexico…
FAIR-MINDED Pearce and FAIR are like devious liars: It’s mind-boggling how much outright bullshit comes out of our new Arizona senate president’s mouth, and now it’s enlightening (not really) to find out he’s not that smart, that his, um, “big ideas” are coming from right-wing extremist groups with ties to…
Anastasio Hernandez Rojas screamed in agony as U.S. border agents rained blows on him and delivered 50,000 volts of electricity to his body over and over. “No! No! Ayuda!” the 42-year-old Mexican wailed, pleading for help in Spanish. “Ayudenme [help me]!” It was late in the evening of May 28,…
THE COMPANY HE KEPT It begins with denials, repeated over time, by state Arizona Senate President-elect Russell Pearce concerning his association with the Valley’s best-known neo-Nazi, J.T. Ready. Approached by an activist at a 2008 candidate forum during the Republican primary for the hotly contested state Senate seat in Legislative…
In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries:…
As I promised in this week’s Bird column concerning state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce’s involvement with neo-Nazi J.T. Ready’s spiritual life as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here’s the e-mail exchange between Pearce and me.To be honest, I’m surprised he replied, as he always…
The introduction to this week’s cover story, “Cloaked Brutality, is chilling. It shows immigrant Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’ final moments of consciousness. As U.S. Border Patrol agents deported him on May 28, they beat and stun-gunned him until he lay stone still. Hernandez Rojas was pronounced dead in a hospital. These final moments were recorded in grainy…
What do Barry Bonds, Phil Mickelson, and the guy who shot up the school board meeting in Florida yesterday all have in common? They’re all Sun Devils.Turns out, 56-year-old Clay Duke, who fired several rounds at members of the Bay District school board at a meeting near Panama City, Florida,…
UPDATED: Tatooey’s been caught. That didn’t take long. Click here for details.Before today, if we saw a man on the street with “480” tattooed on his chin, we’d probably take a second look, think to ourselves “wow, that’s the dumbest f***ing tattoo we’ve ever seen,” and carry on with our…
The Phoenix City Council is expected to vote later today on whether or not to strip the northwest corner of 44th Street and Camelback Road of zoning restrictions that now limit the building heights to 36 feet.(Update: The council sided with property owners and removed the existing building restrictions; neighborhood…
