Category: Court News

A second defendant in a double homicide entered a plea agreement that will send him to prison for more than a decade. Jose Eduardo Vizcara, 29, Bullhead City, is convicted of two counts of kidnapping while first degree murder, body abandonment, theft, unlawful flight and drug-related charges are dismissed.    Prosecutor Jaimye Ashley, during an April 19 hearing, said both murder victims were herded into a bedroom of a Bullhead City home where they were interrogated in January, 2018. She said that the assailants suspected that Mona Carter, 51, was working as a snitch and that Daryl Ward, 22, had…

Normal operations at the Mohave County Adult Detention Center in Kingman are suspended as the Sheriff’s Office continues its investigation into drug overdoses involving five inmates. Each of the male inmates required treatment at Kingman Regional Medical Center after they suffered medical emergencies about 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.    One inmate was admitted to the hospital, but all five have been returned to the jail.    Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said authorities were unable to specifically identify the drug involved, but opioids are suspected.    “During the course of the investigation, information was received that more of the substance may be in the…

A Kingman man charged in two episodes of violence involving his estranged wife will go to the Arizona Department of Corrections through a plea agreement entered Tuesday. Eric James Maxwell, 42, pleaded guilty to attempted second degree murder in one case and to robbery in the other.    Prosecutor Jeff Haws said the robbery occurred in November, 2017 when Maxwell removed a screen to crawl through a window to enter the building where his wife worked in Kingman. Haws said Maxwell chased the victim through and outside the building and that he committed robbery by taking her cell phone as she…

Terms of a plea agreement entered Thursday will send to prison the Kingman woman who stole money from the WAVE-JTED school district while formerly working as its business manager. Deborah Long, 45, pleaded guilty to fraud and theft for stealing money from the district serving western Arizona schools from Parker to Kingman.    Mary Harris, a prosecutor with the Arizona Attorney General’s office, told the Court that Long abused her position to use warrants to write checks to herself, embezzling almost $140,000 between May, 2011 and August, 2016.    Long pleaded guilty to an unrelated theft count arising from her bank employment…

A former detention officer has pleaded guilty to bringing contraband into the Adult Detention Center where she worked for the Mohave County sheriff’s office in Kingman. Ashley Desiree Aquino, 24, Bullhead City, was arrested last November when accused of bringing heroin and other contraband into the jail. Through a plea agreement entered Monday, Aquino will be convicted of one count of promoting prison contraband. Prosecutor James Schoppmann told the Court that Aquino smuggled tobacco into the jail, providing it to her inmate boyfriend Ryan Valente Acosta, 29, Bullhead City, and inmate Matthew Solari, 31, Needles. Schoppmann said Aquino was aware…

An investigation is underway after five inmates suffered medical emergencies following suspected drug overdoses at the Mohave County Adult Detention Center in Kingman Tuesday. Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said detention officers responded just before 7:00 p.m. to a medical emergency in a male housing unit within the jail.    “In a very short period of time, officers and jail nurses were providing emergency treatment to a total of five inmates whose condition and symptoms all appeared as a drug overdose,” Mortensen said. “All five inmates were treated with doses of Narcan, a drug commonly used to reverse the effects of…