Category: Court News

MOHAVE VALLEY – A Mohave Valley resident has fully confessed to the murder of his girlfriend of eight years, claiming it was an act of euthanasia. Details are provided in a probable cause statement authored by Mohave County Sheriff’s Detective William Dixon. The statement indicated that James Paul Manker, 28, first told dispatch that he killed Tina Marie Stimmell, 56, when he called the sheriff’s office at 9:45 a.m. on Jan. 29. His speech was slurred and he reportedly said that he had taken medication and had been drinking vodka after shooting Stimmell while she slept in her recliner in…

KINGMAN– An inmate from the state prison in Golden Valley has pled guilty to aggravated assault charges for scuffling with corrections officers at Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC). Robert Craft, 31, was transported to the hospital on April 21, 2018 because he was behaving erratically in a recreation area of the prison after he ingested methamphetamine and smoked spice. Corrections officer Ericka Escobedo told criminal investigator Mark Banks that Craft was behaving like a zombie. Escobedo said that Craft was “being aggressive and stating he was going to eat someone’s face.” “Since Craft refused to walk, they escorted him to…

LAKE HAVASU CITY – A Lake Havasu City man has reportedly confessed that he had a variety of sexual relations with a young girl over the past couple of years. Admissions by David Long, 44, occurred during a Jan. 25 interview at the Lake Havasu City police department. “David admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with the seven-year-old victim on multiple occasions,” a probable cause police affidavit stated. Police began investigating when the allegations were reported on Jan. 24. Long pled not guilty during his Feb. 6 arraignment to sexual abuse, child molestation and five counts of sexual conduct with…

MOHAVE COUNTY – A Needles, California man was sentenced after pleading guilty Wednesday to killing another inmate at the Mohave County Adult Detention Center in Kingman. Gaven Robel, 26, is convicted of second-degree murder in the November 2017 death of Ryan Couch, 41. Robel also pled guilty to fraud for using false prescriptions to secure large quantities of oxycodone. Prosecutor Sean Coll said Robel was less involved than most of the seven others who were indicted for their alleged participation in a Bullhead City-based opioid distribution ring. Robel was awaiting trial in the drug case when he became involved in…

KINGMAN – The Kingman man who killed his friend and employer and kept it a secret while family and other friends searched for 18 months before the victim’s body was recovered was sentenced Tuesday at the Mohave County courthouse. A legal requirement to impose a natural life prison term for a first degree murder conviction sapped some of the drama out of the sentencing hearing for 63-year-old Alfredo Blanco. Friends and relatives of the victim, 40-year-old Sid Cranston, apprised the Court of their “unspeakable” pain and called Blanco a “coward’’ whose true punishment will come in the afterlife. The victim’s…