Prior child abuse, domestic violence convictions considered A 16-month prison term was imposed in an arson case Friday, March 8 for a Golden Valley woman dealing with a variety of mental health issues. Heather Amundson, 39, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted arson for setting a fire following an argument with her boyfriend where they lived together in the 600 block of Vaquero Drive. Prosecutor Jacob Cote said Amundson set the Sept. 11, 2018 fire that melted a chair and a trash can and caused relatively minor damage to the exterior of the RV in which she and…

Federal authorities report that a drug dealing rivalry was the motivation for the 2014 shooting death of a woman on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. A jury on March 5 convicted Mickey Roy Anderson, 30, of Parker of first degree murder, burglary and a firearms offense. “Anderson walked into the victim’s home, stood a few feet from the victim and shot her in the face. The victim died almost instantly,” a news release stated. “Anderson was angry with the victim for purchasing drugs from another drug dealer in the community.” Cosme Lopez, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the…

A judge said that it is a “travesty” that a Mohave Valley man spent 19 months in custody before he was acquitted of the most serious criminal charges at his trial that concluded on Feb. 7. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Rick Lambert said neither he nor the jury found the victim’s accounts and testimony to be credible. Lambert said the methamphetamine addict’s claims that her estranged boyfriend Nathan Strawderman, 43, repeatedly struck her with a baseball bat in Oct., 2017 were unsupported by medical records involving injury or other evidence. The jury convicted Strawderman of the two, least serious, assault-related…