Category: Court News

A judge in Kingman imposed a two year prison sentence last Wednesday, rejecting a request for probation by a Mohave Valley man who pleaded guilty to voyeurism for using his cell phone to take pictures up and underneath the dress of a female customer at Walmart last September. Defense attorney Nathan Best said his client, Ronald Duarte, 36, suffers mental health issues associated with the death of his fiancé, the mother of his children, in a traffic accident more than five years ago. “I’m a mess,” Duarte said at his sentencing hearing. “All I ask for is just a fighting…

A local judge has imposed the harshest punishment possible under terms of a plea agreement resolving five drug cases involving a Needles resident. Judge Billy Sipe ordered a 20 year prison term during a June 4 sentencing hearing for Matthew Solari. Solari, 31, was one of eight defendants convicted in a Bullhead City based opioid ring prosecuted by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. He also pleaded guilty to possession of dangerous drugs for sale in three other cases handled by the Mohave County attorney’s office, which dismissed the final case. Solari’s disabled mother begged the Court for compassion and leniency…

An investigation of suspected heroin sales from a residence in Lake Havasu City culminated in a seizure and arrest on Wednesday. Police Detective Chris Angus said officers effected a traffic stop after the target of the investigation, Jacob Olson, 21, drove from the suspect residence in the 2600 block of Tanglewood Place. Olson was taken into custody for five previous heroin sales. Angius said officers found Olson to be concealing more than 19 grams of heroin when he was being detained at the police jail facility. A search of the suspect residence did not discover any drugs, though numerous drug…

A Lake Havasu City man snared in an undercover sting operation targeting men preying upon underage women entered a plea agreement in Kingman Thursday. Daniel Martin, 33, pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of attempted luring a minor for sexual exploitation. Martin is one of nine men from Lake Havasu, Bullhead City, Kingman and Las Vegas who were indicted for allegedly attempting to have sex with someone they believed to be a teenager who was actually a Mohave County Sheriff’s office detective. Authorities allege each of the defendants responded to a law enforcement planted social media post before diverting to…

Two Bullhead City men were arrested after Mohave County Sheriff’s deputies spotted a suspect vehicle before making a traffic stop in Mohave Valley last Saturday. Agency spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said it was about 8:00 p.m. when deputies spotted a vehicle matching the description of a vehicle involved in theft of gas the previous evening. Deputies reportedly effected a traffic stop in the area of Calle Agrada Drive and Paso Sur Drive where they made contact with the driver, Trevor David Elder, 27, and the passenger Antonio Raymond Vallejos, 21. Mortensen said deputies detected an odor of marijuana emitting from the…

A Kingman man was arrested over the weekend for an axe attack that injured no one, but damaged a vehicle. Spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said Mohave County Sheriff’s deputies responded Friday afternoon to a report of a disturbance at a home in the 2900 block of Spinner Bait Drive. The reporting party advised that a subject later identified as Ramon Trevino Ortiz, 45, was muttering about “unknown things” when confronted about crossing through his property. “The argument escalated and Ortiz produced an axe from his waistline and began swinging it around and lunged at the victim,” a news release said. “The…