Category: Court News

A Lake Havasu City man is a fugitive from justice after skipping out during the middle of trial before he was convicted on May 17. Richard Fender, 61, failed to return to the courthouse following the lunch break, and a warrant for his arrest was issued after he was convicted of transportation and possession of dangerous drugs for sale late Friday afternoon. Fender asked prosecutor Reed Weisberg if he would offer a better plea agreement Friday morning before the trial began. Weisberg said he wouldn’t accept anything less than a four-year prison term to resolve his case through a plea…

Long stole from school district program, elderly bank customer A 6.5-year prison sentence has been ordered for a Kingman woman who stole from her school district employer for nearly five years before she ripped off an elderly customer while working as a bank teller. Deborah Long, 44, was sentenced Friday by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Derek Carlisle. Long was one of the first two employees hired when the Western Arizona Vocational Education (WAVE) district was established in 2009. She pleaded guilty to fraud and theft for stealing nearly $140,000 from WAVE from November 2011 to August 2016. The school…

A second defendant has been sentenced for his involvement in the abduction-murders of two Bullhead City residents in a remote desert area of Fort Mohave. The 24-year prison term imposed during Thursday’s sentencing hearing for 29-year old Jose Vizcara was the harshest punishment possible under terms of a plea agreement convicting him of two counts of kidnapping. Authorities have said that Mona Carter, 51, and Daryl Ward, 22 were both abducted and herded into a bedroom of a Bullhead City home in January, 2018. Both were interrogated; Ward for his suspected involvement in theft of drugs and Carter for her…