Category: Court News

BULLHEAD CITY – A 4-year prison term was imposed Monday for a cellphone store holdup in Bullhead City. The punishment for 29-year-old Alonso Avalos was prescribed in a plea agreement convicting him of armed robbery. No one was injured when Avalos used a handgun while robbing the Cricket Wireless store on highway 95 in Nov. 2019. Avalos was identified as a suspect after a citizen recognized a surveillance system image in a local newspaper. Avalos reportedly helped authorities recover the stolen money and the weapon used in the robbery. Dave Hawkins

MOHAVE VALLEY – An accused drug dealer from Mohave Valley faces possible prison time after entering a plea agreement in Kingman Monday. Maria Kormes, 35, is being convicted of a reduced charge of attempted possession of dangerous drugs for sale. Authorities said 25 grams of methamphetamine was found in Kormes’ purse following a Feb. 2 2019 traffic stop in the 2100 block of Mustang in Mohave Valley. Kormes is eligible for probation but could get up to 8.75 years in prison when sentenced Feb. 12 by Superior Court judge Derek Carlisle. Case co-defendant Javier Escalante, 41, Ontario, California also pleaded…

MOHAVE VALLEY – An accused drug dealer from Mohave Valley faces possible prison time after entering a plea agreement in Kingman Monday. Maria Kormes, 35, is being convicted of a reduced charge of attempted possession of dangerous drugs for sale. Authorities said 25 grams of methamphetamine was found in Kormes’ purse following a Feb. 2 2019 traffic stop in the 2100 block of Mustang in Mohave Valley. Kormes is eligible for probation but could get up to 8.75 years in prison when sentenced Feb. 12 by Superior Court judge Derek Carlisle. Case co-defendant Javier Escalante, 41, Ontario, California also pleaded…

KINGMAN – A Pocatello, Idaho man busted with drugs in Mohave County entered a mandatory prison plea deal during a Monday hearing before Superior Court Judge Carlisle. Steven Shaffer, 49, pleaded guilty to possession of dangerous drugs for sale. Deputy Mohave County Attorney Reed Weisberg said authorities seized 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine from Shaffer’s vehicle during a June 15 traffic stop in the rural community of Chloride north of Kingman. Weisberg said Shaffer was the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle. Terms of the deal require Judge Carlisle to impose an 8-year prison term during a Jan. 12 sentencing…

LAKE HAVASU CITY – A Lake Havasu City man convicted of sexually explicit communications and exchanges with a 12-year-old California girl is being sent to the Arizona Department of Corrections for five years. During Thursday’s sentencing hearing at the Mohave County courthouse Judge Doug Camacho also ordered that Christian Charvarin, 22, will serve ten years’ probation following his release from prison. Charvarin was convicted through a plea agreement of sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation. Deputy Mohave County attorney Karolina Czaplinska said the investigation began when a California woman discovered her daughter…

KINGMAN – Sexual relations with an inmate could bring prison time for a Golden Valley woman. Melony Petrovffsky, 50, pleaded guilty Dec. 8 to unlawful sexual conduct by a correctional employee, while two identical charges are dismissed in the deal. Deputy Mohave County attorney James Schoppmann said Petrovffsky was employed by the GEO Group, which operates the state prison in Golden Valley, when she engaged in sexual activity with a male inmate in the commissary in Sept. 2019. He said evidence of the illegal conduct was captured by the video surveillance system. “There was kissing, hugging and groping going on…