Children kept in closet until they died; alleged drug dealer to testify Thursday

Reina Irene Gonzales concluded two days of testimony in Christopher Mathew Payne’s capital murder trial, saying she could have helped his children before they died but didn’t.

Defense attorneys said Gonzales, 24, is most responsible for Ariana and Tyler Payne’s deaths from starvation in 2006 while being forced to live in a bedroom closet for months.

“Did you have the ability to feed them?” Assistant Public Defender John O’Brien asked Wednesday.

“Yes,” Gonzales said.

“Did you ever take them out of the closet?”

“No,” she said.

Payne, 30, was arrested after Ariana’s remains were found in a North Side storage locker Feb. 18, 2007. Tyler’s remains have never been found.

Payne is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and concealing the children’s bodies. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Gonzales was similarly charged, but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 22-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Payne.

Prosecutors say Gonzales feared Payne too much to help the children.

“At whose direction were the children kept in the closet?” Deputy County Attorney Susan Eazer asked Wednesday.

“Chris,” Gonzales said.

“Why didn’t you take care of those kids, Reina?” Eazer asked.

“I don’t know,” Gonzales replied.

Ronald Genung, who lived next door to the apartment where Ariana, 3, and Tyler, 4, died, testified that he smelled a foul odor coming from his neighbor’s porch.

According to previous testimony, Ariana’s body was once kept in the outside storage closet until Payne placed the body back in a bedroom closet with Tyler’s body.

Ana Ontiveros, who works at the apartment complex where Ariana and Tyler died, said Payne and Gonzales left the closet filled top to bottom with trash bags with dirty diapers and other refuse.

The stench was so offensive that when the closet was first opened, the door was quickly shut, Ontiveros said.

A detective testified that there was evidence of blood and body fluids in the closet.

Testimony will resume Thursday morning with an alleged drug dealer who stayed at the Payne apartment while the children were kept in the closet.

A controversial heiress was sentenced to three years of intensive probation after pleading guilty to attempted forgery.

Judge Clark W. Munger of Pima County Superior Court also ordered Marjorie Congdon Hagen, 76, to pay $10,000 to the county for attorney fees.

Hagen was indicted on one charge each of fraud and forgery for trying to cash a check for more than $11,000 on March 19, 2007, from a man who died earlier that month.

Her sentence could have ranged from six months to 2.5 years in prison or up to 12 months in jail.

Hagen claimed in defense papers that she cared for Roger Sammis and took his inheritance money from a joint account to pay debts and repay herself and Sammis’ friend for money they had loaned him.

Sammis called Hagen “my angel,” defense records show.

Though Hagen was once wealthy, her fortunes appear to have declined.

She was represented in the fraud case by court-appointed attorney Brick P. Storts III.

Financial records filed in the case indicate Hagen had about $12,000 in bank accounts and lived on an annuity and monthly trust fund payments.

Hagen and her second husband, Roger Caldwell, were charged in the 1977 murders of her mother, wealthy Minnesota heiress Elisabeth Congdon, and nurse Velma Pietila.

Caldwell was convicted. Hagen was acquitted. An alibi witness later recanted, records show.

Children of her third husband – Wallace Hagen, whom Marjorie married while Caldwell was in prison – said she allegedly used $200,000 from her mother’s estate to pay for Caldwell’s attorneys, according to court papers.

While Marjorie Hagen expected millions from Congdon’s estate, her children sued for the right to the money, saying they could prove in a civil trial that she conspired with Caldwell to kill Congdon. Marjorie Hagen settled with her children out of court.

Marjorie befriended Wallace and Helen Hagen of Mound, Minn., while Caldwell was in prison. Helen and Wallace’s children claimed Marjorie was the last person to feed their ailing mother before she died.

Marjorie and Wallace later wed. The bride, however, was later charged with bigamy because she failed to divorce Caldwell, court records show.

Caldwell’s murder conviction was overturned and he later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea deal. He killed himself in 1988 after being released from prison.

Wallace Hagen died Oct. 29, 1992, the day after Marjorie Hagen was convicted of setting a recreational vehicle on fire in Ajo, where the couple lived.

The heiress also was convicted in a separate criminal damage case and served 14 years of a 15-year sentence, records show.

Children starved, barricaded in closet

The woman Christopher Mathew Payne proclaimed was “the love of my life” testified Tuesday that she feared for the safety of his two older children, both of whom starved to death, and her own son with him.

“Why didn’t you try and get those kids help?” Deputy Pima County Attorney Susan Eazer asked.

“I was scared,” Reina Irene Gonzales said.

“What were you scared of?”

“Losing my son,” said Gonzales, 24, who has a 4-year-old son with Payne, 30, of Tucson.

Gonzales said during the time that the children were being starved to death, she and Payne were taking just enough heroin every other hour to keep themselves from withdrawal. Most of their money went to buy heroin, but they did manage to feed and clothe their child, she said.

Payne is charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and concealing the bodies of Ariana, 3, and Tyler Payne, 4. If he is convicted, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Gonzales had been similarly charged, but accepted a plea deal to second-degree murder and a 22-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Payne.

Gonzales testified that both times after they found his two older children dead, they got high. The children died a week apart.

Ariana and Tyler Payne came to live with Gonzales and Payne in early 2006, she testified. Around June, the children were being kept around the clock in a bedroom closet.

Gonzales said a small dresser was put in front of the closet to keep them in and Payne would feed them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches about once a day.

About a month later, Payne stopped feeding them, she said.

Gonzales said Payne would look in on the children about once a day. The children never left the closet, she said.

One night when she and Payne were getting ready for bed, she said, Payne checked in on the children to find that Ariana had died.

“He put her on the bed,” Gonzales said. “(He was) freaking out.”

Though both Payne and Gonzales knew Tyler was destined for the same fate as his sister, nothing was done to help him and he died a week after Ariana, Gonzales said.

When Gonzales and Payne were arrested on March 1, 2007, Payne told police the children starved themselves to protest not being allowed to return to their mother, Jamie Hallam, who had legal custody.

Payne said he force-fed the children, but they starved to death anyway.

For two days, jurors watched a five-hour video of interviews with Payne at the police station.

Gonzales rebutted almost the entirety of his statements on the video.

“Did you ever see Chris force feed the children?” Prosecutor Eazer asked.

“No,” Gonzales said.

“Did you ever see the children refuse food they were offered?”

“No.”

“Did the kids like to eat?”

“Yes.”

Gonzales said she didn’t like the children living with them after a time because “Chris was abusing them.”

Gonzales said she asked Payne about giving the children back to Hallam, but he refused.

Gonzales said she knew Payne had been paying child support to Hallam before the children came to live with them and that it was deducted from his paycheck.

“He didn’t like the fact he was paying Jamie,” Gonzales said. Gonzales said as time passed, he became more and more abusive to Ariana and Tyler.

Assistant Public Defender John O’Brien cross-examined Gonzales throughout the afternoon about the details of her plea agreement and cited what he called numerous lies she told when she first talked to police and denied knowing the children had died. In response to a question by O’Brien, Gonzales admitted that she lied to police after she was arrested. O’Brien’s cross-examination of Gonzales continues Wednesday.

Tyler and Ariana Payne were starved to death

Reina Irene Gonzales, the key witness against Christopher Mathew Payne, is set to testify Tuesday about how he treated her and his children.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Fields made a series of rulings Monday that limits how much defense attorneys can ask Gonzales, 24, about her history of drug abuse and prosecutors can ask about alleged domestic violence incidents.

Deputy County Attorney Susan Eazer asked Fields to allow her to ask about Payne allegedly yelling at Gonzales when she didn’t pay the rent; a shoving incident when she was pregnant with their child, Chris Jr.; and a confrontation over an unsubstantiated report he molested his daughter.

“Reina will say she was intimidated by him because of those things,” Eazer said, “and that’s why she didn’t take any steps she should have while all this was going on in the house.”

Prosecutors say Payne, 30, starved to death his older children, Ariana, 3, and Tyler, 4, over an extended period in 2006 that included locking them in a closet with little food or water.

Defense attorneys say Gonzales was the one who abused the children and is mainly responsible for their deaths.

Fields ruled Gonzales may testify she was intimidated by and feared Payne and he yelled at her about the rent. But he said the shoving incident is off limits.

Defense attorneys sought to ask Gonzales about alleged drug use at an early age and her family background, which they say led to her poor parenting skills and abuse of Ariana and Tyler.

Fields ruled they can ask her about her drug use, but he won’t allow extensive questioning.

Monday afternoon, jurors finished watching a five-hour-long video of Payne being questioned by police after his March 1, 2007, arrest.

Prosecutors played the tape in its entirety, including showing Payne alone in the interview room, squirming in his seat, laying on the table, kicking the walls, screaming his love for Gonzales and swearing at and pleading with officers to feed him and allow him to use the bathroom.

Payne admitted the children died in his care, but said they starved themselves to death because he wouldn’t send them to their mother.

“You’re trying to make this a bigger case than what it really is,” Payne said. “I failed to make that phone call to get them help. I know that. That’s what I failed to do.”

At the time, officers were piecing together the story of how Ariana’s badly decomposed body came to be found in a plastic tub in a trash bin at a storage facility.

Payne was surprised to learn that only one set of bones had been found, saying he put both children in the tub.

Detectives were shocked to learn that Tyler’s body should have been with his sister’s. His remains have never been recovered.

Detective Michael Orozco testified Monday that officers didn’t search the trash bin where the tub containing the bodies was found.

Involves woman’s suit alleging nursing home drugged mmom to death

A Tucson wrongful death case is among several that judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear March 6 at the University of Arizona.

The case involves a woman who appealed a U.S. District Court summary judgment in favor of the federal government. Becky McCormick had filed a lawsuit alleging her mother died from multi-drug intoxication at Catalina Village Assisted Nursing.

Five other cases also will be heard by the three-judge panel of Marsha S. Berzon of San Francisco, Michael Daly Hawkins of Phoenix and Richard R. Clifton of Honolulu.

Oral arguments begin at 10 a.m. in the UA Law School’s Ares Auditorium, Room 146, 1201 E. Speedway Blvd.

Photo ID is required.

The 9th Circuit court hears appeals of cases decided by federal agencies and federal trial courts in nine Western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions.

The court usually meets monthly in Seattle, San Francisco and Pasadena, Calif.; every other month in Portland; twice yearly in Honolulu; and once in Anchorage. It also takes its show on the road and hears cases at law schools in the states that comprise the district.

At Payne trial, she cries while describing how daughter found

Jamie Hallam kept her composure for the most part when she was called to the stand to testify about her children, Ariana and Tyler Payne, who allegedly were killed by their father.

Hallam cried briefly when she recalled being told by police that Ariana’s body had been found and that Tyler, whose body has not been found, was presumed dead.

Prosecutors say Christopher Mathew Payne, 30, starved his children to death several months before Ariana’s badly decomposed body was found on Feb. 19, 2007.

Ariana’s remains were inside a garbage bag in a designer tote bag inside a plastic tub abandoned at a North Side storage unit.

Hallam, 32, testified police contacted her in February 2007 about her children, whom she hadn’t seen in more than a year.

“We’d previously heard that a little girl was found in a storage unit, but her estimated age at the time was 2, but something didn’t make (sense), didn’t sound right,” Hallam said.

Ariana was 3 when Hallam last saw her, but she would have been 4 in February 2007.

Hallam, who now lives out of state, braced herself for the news that the girl’s remains were Ariana’s, but held out hope that Tyler was still alive.

But Hallam got the worst possible news once she got to the police station.

“They said that the girl in the storage unit was most likely my daughter and that Tyler was most likely deceased,” Hallam said, crying.

Moments later, Hallam’s mood turned to soft laughter as she described her two children to jurors.

Hallam said Tyler was a “rambunctious” boy who liked to play with his trucks and ride his bike, which had training wheels. He was a mama’s boy who followed her everywhere and was very protective of his sister.

Ariana was a happy child, Hallam said.

“She liked to color. She loved to color, pencils, markers, crayons, everything,” Hallam said.

Tyler was a picky eater, but Ariana usually ate everything on her plate, as well as whatever her finicky brother left, Hallam said, smiling.

When Hallam left the children at Payne’s apartment, they were happy and clean, she said. Hallam had packed enough clothes for a weekend visit, which Payne kept extending.

Neither of the children had ever been taken to the hospital with serious injuries when they were in Hallam’s care, she testified.

Defense attorneys say the children were abused by either Hallam or one of her boyfriends and that they arrived at Payne’s apartment “scrawny” and dirty.

Testimony continues Friday with the lead detective and an officer who interviewed Payne after his March 1, 2007, arrest.

Christopher Payne starved kids to death, prosecutor says; defense blames ex-girlfriend

Prosecutors say Christopher Mathew Payne was more concerned with his drug habit and his new family than his two older children, who he is accused of keeping in a closet and starving to death.

Almost two years after Ariana Payne’s decomposed body was found in a plastic bin in a storage locker, testimony began Tuesday in the capital murder trial of her father, who is also accused of killing Ariana’s brother, Tyler.

Payne, 30, was arrested after Ariana’s remains were found in a North Side storage locker Feb. 18, 2007. Tyler’s remains have never been found.

Ariana and Tyler would have been 3 and 4 when they were killed months before Ariana’s remains were found, prosecutors say.

“He abused these children and in the course and in furtherance of that child abuse, the children died,” Deputy County Attorney Bunkye Chi said in her opening statement.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Payne is convicted on either of two first-degree murder counts.

Defense attorneys say Payne was a doting father who took his older children from their mother, Jamie Hallam, for their protection and didn’t realize that he put them in the hands of another woman, Reina Irene Gonzales, who abused them and who is responsible for their deaths.

Gonzales is Payne’s former live-in girlfriend and the mother of his surviving child.

“We’re not asking for absolution, but asking for a fair and factual assessment as to Chris Payne’s responsibility,” Assistant Public Defender Rebecca McLean said in her opening statement.

McLean asked the jury to find him guilty of second-degree murder and reckless child abuse for failing to see that his children were properly cared for.

“Even the state will say that there’s evidence Reina is not a great person,” Chi said in opening statements. “Reina is lazy. Reina did not like these kids. Reina was addicted to drugs.

“Reina quite frankly didn’t care what happened to these kids,” Chi said.

“In fact, she admits she sat around all day smoking heroin, getting high and not paying much attention to the children,” McLean said.

Gonzales often complained to Payne that she didn’t know how to handle the children and said at least once that if he didn’t come home from his drug-dealing job, she would kill them, McLean said.

Gonzales also was indicted on first-degree murder charges and would have faced a possible death sentence if convicted.

However, in May she accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder and a 22-year sentence in exchange for her testimony against Payne.

Gonzales’ attorney, Brick P. Storts III, said in an interview in August that he believes Payne manipulated and abused Gonzales, putting her in a vulnerable position.

“Still, she was aware of what was going on inside that apartment and did nothing to stop it or to rectify it and seek help.

“And that’s what she pled guilty to,” Storts said.

Body in storage locker

Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Fields told jurors the trial is expected to run until March 27.

Jurors will hear testimony about the lives of Payne, Gonzales and the Payne children that few may be able to relate to in their own lives.

Though no outsiders will know exactly what happened in the last months of Ariana’s and Tyler’s short lives, some details have been revealed in court records, pretrial hearings and testimony, related documents, interviews and trial testimony and show what jurors can expect to hear over the next month.

Tuesday’s testimony included gruesome details about the discovery of Ariana’s remains.

Chi told jurors that when police searched an apartment where they believe Ariana and Tyler starved to death, they found Tyler’s blood in some carpeting and in a small closet.

“They saw signs of death in that closet,” Chi said.

Gonzales is expected to testify that Payne forced her to lock Ariana and Tyler in the closet, where they were kept until they died.

Chi said the children likely died in late August or early September 2006.

On Sept. 6, 2006, Payne rented a rental unit at U-Store-It, 519 E. Prince Road.

Three months later, when rental fees weren’t paid, the manager of the rental units placed an eviction lock on Payne’s locker.

Diana Hanselman, who managed the U-Store-It then, opened the locker early in 2007, but was repelled by a strong, foul odor, she testified Tuesday.

She procrastinated cleaning out the locker until Feb. 16, when she opened it along with another woman to learn whether there were any contents suitable for auction.

The locker contained a blue plastic tub, Hanselman testified. The tub reeked and there were bugs and flies surrounding it.

Hanselman hauled the tub to a trash bin, where she dumped it. Later that night, a friend advised calling police, which Hanselman did on Feb. 18, 2007.

Tucson Officer Ben Soltero arrived to find the remains of a girl wrapped in a black garbage bag inside a designer tote bag that had been placed in the tub.

Testing later showed it to be Ariana’s remains.

Officers didn’t think to search the entire trash container at the facility, unaware that another body might have been there.

Once Payne was identified as the owner of the locker and became the primary focus of the investigation, officers also learned he had a daughter who might have been the same age as the crumpled body that was found. They were shocked to learn Payne had another child, a boy, who was missing.

By that time, days had passed and the garbage bin from the storage unit had been emptied.

Police searched the West Side apartment where the children apparently died, which also reeked of a foul odor and still had personal items of Payne’s and Gonzales’ strewn around the one-bedroom unit.

In a tiny bedroom closet, police found traces of blood, body fluid seeped into the floorboards and blood splatter on the walls. A hole was cut into the wall, with hair and what appeared to be feces stuffed inside.

In a small storage shed on the balcony, police also smelled a foul odor and found blood on the walls and body fluids soaked in the floor.

The apartment smelled so bad that even half a year after Payne and Gonzales moved out, the management hadn’t been able to clean it well enough to rent.

Parents’ life together

Payne, 30, met Jamie Hallam when she moved here full time to live with her stepfather, Richard Barcalow.

Barcalow, who lives in Catalina about 15 miles north of Tucson, told the Tucson Citizen he raised Hallam from the age of 3, when he married her mother, Linda, in New Jersey. They have since divorced. Linda remarried and lives in New Jersey, he said.

Hallam, who now lives out of state, came to Tucson to stay with Barcalow after bearing a son in New Jersey, Barcalow told the Citizen. The boy, a preteen, lives with his father in New Jersey.

Payne and Hallam met when he helped repair the trailer Barcalow gave her, Hallam’s stepfather said.

Eventually, the couple moved together to a Tucson apartment. Early on, there were signs of strife as Hallam once asked her stepdad to help her move after Payne allegedly hit her.

Yet the couple remained together.

Tyler was born Nov. 15, 2001, about two months before his parents got married. By May 2002, Arizona Child Protective Services visited the Payne household after hearing allegations of “low-risk” physical abuse. A CPS worker visited the family but didn’t report any concerns.

Ariana Socorro Payne was born Oct. 12, 2002. By mid-2003, Chris and Jamie Payne had separated and divorced.

Hallam was granted primary custody; Payne was denied visitation.

At different points, each accused the other of using drugs and mistreating the children, but Hallam never lost legal custody.

McLean told jurors the children saw abuse and domestic violence “before they even reached Chris and Reina’s house.”

Payne, Gonzales, deaths

Payne and Gonzales, 24, met through her brother, whom she was living with around 2003. Within two months of meeting Payne, Gonzales became pregnant with Christopher Mathew Payne Jr., who was born in 2004.

Gonzales’ life wasn’t just on a downward spiral – court records indicate that her family history basically left her with nowhere to go.

As Gonzales’ attorney, Storts said during a pretrial hearing that Gonzales is a woman who never should have had children and who was born to a woman who never should have had children.

Gonzales’ relatives characterized her as the “caretaker” of the family who adored and cared for her father, who died from the effects of alcoholism when she was a teenager, and her mother, who neglected her own children.

Though Gonzales has said she was self-sufficient, records indicate that she was unable to find a job or housing on her own, that she never lived on her own – moving from her parents’ house to boyfriends’ homes to living with Payne – and was unable to keep a job, due to chronic tardiness.

A teacher helped Gonzales move into government subsidized housing, but after Payne moved in with her, she was evicted for violating housing rules.

Over the course of her four-year relationship with Payne, Gonzales’ life was one of constant change – a string of dead-end jobs that always ended in unemployment due to her absences, continuous housing moves and chronic abuse of heroin and cocaine.

One of Gonzales’ cousins helped her and Payne obtain an apartment at the Portofino Apartments on West 36th Street, which is where Ariana and Tyler died.

Relatives sometimes brought food to the apartment and voluntarily cleaned up what seemed to be a constant mess, which they said was unusual for Gonzales.

In early 2006, Payne told Hallam he wanted to be involved in Tyler’s and Ariana’s lives.

Hallam agreed to let the children visit with Payne in January, which would be the last time she saw her children alive.

By February, Payne refused to let Hallam see the children. He threatened to get custody, with CPS backing him.

On March 9, at Hallam’s urging, police visited Payne, who convinced them he had legal custody of the children. CPS advised police to leave the children with their father until the custody issue was settled.

On April 14, 2006, CPS closed the case on the Payne children, leaving them with Payne.

After Payne and Gonzales were arrested, neighbors told police they couldn’t remember ever seeing Tyler and Ariana, though Chris Jr. was a common sight.

McLean said when Ariana died, “(Her father) was horribly, horribly surprised and distraught. He was saddened. The whole day, he gave her CPR. He kept her in bed with him.”

McLean said Payne didn’t know why the children were “wasting away” and died.

“Reina just wanted to throw the kids away. Chris couldn’t do that, so he kept them in the storage bin,” McLean said.

An autopsy on Ariana’s remains, which were so badly decomposed that a formal autopsy couldn’t be conducted, showed 12 broken ribs in various stages of healing, along with a shoulder injury, Chi said.

The rib fractures showed evidence the girl had been picked up and squeezed so hard her bones broke. The shoulder injury was inconsistent with a fall, Chi said.

In addition, Ariana suffered a compressed vertebra, Chi said.

Confession an issue

Payne’s fate could be sealed not only by Gonzales’ testimony, but by his own words.

On March 1, 2007, police found Payne, Gonzales and their son at a South Side motel. Payne was arrested on outstanding warrants and taken to the main station downtown.

Payne apparently took a liking to Detective Mike Walker and appeared eager to talk to him.

“Tell these guys I ain’t gonna answer no questions unless they hurry the (expletive) up, man!” Payne told Walker.

Payne said Walker was “the only person I’ll talk to.”

Payne tried to “control the pace and direction of the interview by continually asking on at least 10 occasions for the detective to “get to the point,” prosecutors said in a motion to allow his statements.

Payne also asked to speak to his father, who was unavailable, detectives said.

“Well, let me call my sister, and then my stepsister, just to let them know that, what the (expletive) is goin’ on’ and then I’ll talk, man,” Payne said.

Payne’s attorneys strenuously argued against allowing the jury to hear a confession and other statements he made after his arrest. The judge has said they may be used.

Defense attorneys said Payne was too ill from the effects of heroin withdrawal to make his statements voluntarily and his right to have a lawyer with him during questioning was violated.

Prosecutors said the statements show how Payne consistently tried to manipulate police officers, bargaining with them for food or a blanket in exchange for telling them where Tyler’s body was. They also said Payne didn’t complain of any ailments until after he knew officers knew the children were dead.

Detective Mike Orozco told grand jurors that Payne admitted the children starved to death in his care. Ariana died first, according to the confession.

McLean told jurors Gonzales will testify that Ariana’s body was put into the garbage bag, then a tote bag and placed in the closet with her brother, who died several days later.

———

TIMELINE FOR THE CASE

2000

Jamie Hallam moves to Tucson full time to be with stepdad in Catalina, meets and moves in with Chris Payne.

2001

Nov. 15 – Tyler Christopher Payne born

2002

Jan. 26 – Christopher Payne and Jamie Hallam marry

May 2 – CPS visits Paynes’ home on allegations of “low-risk” physical abuse. The CPS worker had no concerns.

Oct. 12 – Ariana Socorro Payne born

December – Jamie Hallam Payne gets order of protection against Chris Payne

2003

March 16: Payne and Hallam are divorced. Hallam is granted primary custody and Payne weekend visitation.

2004

Christopher Payne Jr. born to Chris and Reina Gonzales

2005

October – CPS caseworker reports neglect of kids and meth use by Hallam and her boyfriend, finds claims of child neglect unsubstantiated

2006

January – Hallam leaves kids with Payne for visit, but he doesn’t return them

Feb. 14 – Payne calls CPS, saying Hallam wants to take children, CPS tells Payne to seek custody

Feb. 21 – Caseworker sees kids with Payne and says they’re OK, but electricity turned off

March 1 – CPS closes neglect case on Hallam, calling it “unsubstantiated,” but kids stay with Payne

March 9 – Police tell CPS Hallam wants kids back and proves she has custody. TPD officer goes to Payne’s home and calls CPS when Payne shows application for court order. CPS says to leave children there until hearing to decide custody

April 14 – CPS closes case involving children, but leaves kids with Payne

Sept. 6 – Payne rents storage locker

Dec. 6 – Payne defaults on storage locker rent

2007

Feb. 18 – Ariana’s body found in plastic tub in storage locker at U-Store-It, 519 E. Prince Road

March 1 – Payne arrested, charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, abandoning or concealing body parts. Bond set at $1.5 million. Police search Los Reales Landfill for Tyler’s body.

March 8 – Reina Gonzales arrested, charged with child abuse. Chris Jr. is given to CPS, eventually to Payne’s sister.

May 18 – Gonzales indicted on two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of child abuse

Nov. 1 – State releases outside review of CPS Payne case that says CPS failed multiple times to ensure safety of the Payne children

2008

Feb. 15 – Hallam files $12 million wrongful death lawsuit against CPS

June – State agrees to pay Jamie $1 million

Aug. 25 – Gonzales pleads guilty to second-degree murder

A 19-year-old Tucson man was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the January 2008 slaying of another youth.

A Pima County Superior Court jury also convicted Anthony Richard Encinas of attempted robbery and attempted aggravated robbery.

Judge Howard Fell will sentence Encinas on April 6. For the first-degree murder charge, Fell will sentence him to life in prison either without parole or with parole possible after 25 years.

Santa Rita High School student Derreck Burruss, 16, was gunned down as he and two friends were walking home from Park Place mall after watching a movie.

They were approached along South Wilmot Road by two other youths, police said. Those youths got into a confrontation with Burruss and his friends and one of them pulled a pistol and shot Burruss at about 12:30 a.m., police said.

Police also arrested Raymond Godoy, 17, who is set to go on trial late next month.

Christopher Payne starved his two older children to death because he was so focused on feeding himself, his girlfriend and their baby and supplying himself and his girlfriend with drugs, a prosecutor said.

Deputy County Attorney Bunkye Chi told jurors in her opening statement in Payne’s double murder trial Wednesday that when Ariana Payne, 4, died, he put her body into a garbage bag, then a small duffle bag. When her brother, Tyler, 5, died, he put the boy’s body in a garbage bag and the two bodies in a storage locker.

Ariana’s body was discovered when Payne failed to make payments on the storage locker. Tyler’s body has never been found.

After Ariana’s body was discovered Feb. 18, police eventually located the apartment that Payne and his girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, lived in. Even though months had passed, the apartment hadn’t been rented because of a foul smell.

Police found Tyler’s blood in some carpet and in a small closet.

“They saw signs of death in that closet,” Chi said.

An autopsy on Ariana’s remains, which were so badly decomposed that a formal autopsy couldn’t be conducted, showed 12 broken ribs in various stages of healing, along with a shoulder injury, Chi said.

The rib fractures showed evidence the girl had been picked up and squeezed so hard her bones broke. The shoulder injury was inconsistent with a fall, Chi said.

In addition, Ariana suffered a compressed vertebra, Chi said.

Assistant Public Defender Rebecca McLean told jurors in her opening statement that Payne says he loved his children and didn’t abuse them or kill them.

She said that the children’s mother, Jamie Hallam, was a bad mother and his girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, threatened to kill them because she hated them.

“Surely this is one of the saddest, most tragic cases you’ll ever hear,” McLean said. “Those children did not deserve to die. They deserved to be cherished and cared for and loved.

“And sadly, that did not happen,” McLean said.

“That does not mean Christopher Payne is guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder. It certainly doesn’t mean he’s guilty of intentional child abuse.”

Chi said the children likely died in early September 2006, around the time Payne obtained the storage locker where the remains were kept until Feb. 18

Chi said the children had little contact with their father after Payne and their mother, Jamie Hallam, separated soon after Ariana’s birth, followed by their divorce. Hallam was given sole custody and Payne denied visitation.

But Payne suddenly wanted back in the children’s lives in late 2005. In January 2006, Hallam dropped the children off with Payne for what she thought was a short visit.

“The kids were healthy,” Chi said, adding that the children didn’t show any signs of behavioral problems.

Hallam never saw her children again, Chi said.

In February 2006, Payne stopped all contact with Hallam, Chi said. He talked to Child Protective Services, and told them Hallam was addicted to meth. CPS advised him to file for custody of the children, Chi said.

In early March, Hallam contacted police for help getting her children back, Chi said. An officer saw the children and said they appeared to be healthy and happy, Chi said.

Despite Hallam’s court order for the children, Chi said, neither the police nor CPS gave the children back to her.

“There was no follow up with the defendant and those kids,” Chi said. “No follow up for him and his circumstances.”

Hallam sued CPS and was awarded $1 million, Chi told jurors.

When Payne and Gonzales were arrested in February 2007, Chi said, their baby, Chris Jr., was healthy, Chi said.

“He clearly has eaten,” Chi said. “Developmentally, he’s on target. It appears somebody has spent time with this little kid.”

Within months of Ariana and Tyler’s arrival in Payne’s house, Chi said, relatives, friends and neighbors saw less and less of them. A drug dealer who lived with Payne and Gonzales will testify even the children’s photos were removed from the apartment, Chi said.

Payne and Gonzales gave many excuses for the children’s absences, Chi said.

One of Gonzales’ friends will testify, Chi said, that she once saw signs of abuse on Tyler, who had bruises.

Chi told jurors that in exchange for her testimony, Gonzales was given a plea deal to second-degree murder with a 22-year sentence.

“Even the state will say that there’s evidence Reina is not a great person,” Chi said. “Reina is lazy. Reina did not like these kids. Reina was addicted to drugs.

“Reina quite frankly didn’t care what happened to these kids,” Chi said.

Gonzales and Payne both lied to police when they were first questioned about the children, Chi said.

Gonzales said the children had gone to live with their mother, Chi said.

Eventually, Gonzales told police that the children began showing some behavioral problems. Their punishments went from getting time out to being locked in a closet all day with so little food and water that they died.

“She will tell you about the day they discovered Ariana was dead,” Chi said. “She will tell you they freaked out.”

Gonzales also is expected to testify about how Ariana’s body was put into the garbage bag then a duffel bag and placed in the closet with her brother, who died days later.

“Reina will tell you that despite all this going on … she did absolutely nothing to help them,” Chi said.

Jurors also will hear Payne’s statements to police and jail officers after his arrest that show he not only knew the children had died, but died in his care, Chi said. He also tried bargain with them, saying he would tell them where Tyler’s body was if they gave him sandwiches, Chi said.

Payne lied when he told police the children starved themselves to death, Chi said.

“Once the kids discovered they could not go back with their mother, they just stopped eating,” Chi said Payne told police. “He tried everything he could to get the kids to eat.

“But the things he tried certainly weren’t taking them to the hospital or to the doctor,” Chi said.

When Ariana died, Payne didn’t want to notify authorities because it would risk them finding out about Tyler and take Payne away from Gonzales and their son, Chi said.

The children’s bodies were taken to the storage unit to be “hidden away so he could continue life with Reina, continue life with little Chris,” Chi said.

“At the end, ladies and gentlemen,” Chi said, the state will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant caused the death of these children and he did so with premeditation, as the minutes, hours and days passed when the kids who had no food died.

“He abused these children and in the course and in furtherance of that child abuse, the children died,” Chi said. “The state will prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that he concealed the remains so they would stay undetected.”

McLean explained that Payne and Hallam split up shortly after Ariana was born.

“Jamie was drug addicted, to methamphetamine, and she did not take very good care of the two children,” McLean said.

McLean said there were “several red flags” that Child Protective Servies should have picked up on but didn’t.

McLean said when Tyler was 2, Hallam took him to the doctor. The boy weighed only 24 pounds, McLean said, and Hallam was told to give him a high-fat diet.

Ariana was taken to the doctor when she was 2 and given a prescription for a “psychological evaluation” for “suspected abusive environment” because she had nightmares and a high lead level in her system, McLean said.

In October 2005, CPS investigated Hallam and her boyfriend for suspected drug abuse (McLean didn’t mention the report was later deemed unsubstantiated).

McLean said the children only had food when Hallam got some from her stepdad.

The children saw abuse and domestic violence “before they even reached Chris and Reina’s house,” McLean said.

After Payne and Gonzales’ baby, Chris Jr., was born in 2004, Payne quit his job as a produce company driver “to be a stay-at-home dad,” McLean said, while Gonzales worked.

“During that period of time, there were no reports to CPS of any abuse or neglect of Chris Jr.,” McLean said.

In May 2005, Payne began working for a medical transport service, McLean said. His boss will say he was “a very good employee, very reliable, more reliable” than the younger drivers.

In December 2005, McLean said, Payne was concerned that Hallam was abusing drugs and not taking care of the children, so he go back into their lives.

In January, McLean said, Hallam “just left them” at Payne’s.

“They arrived scrawny, dirty, skinny and ill-clothed,” McLean said. “I think one just had one shoe on.”

Gonzales, McLean said, “really did not like those two children at all. She did not want them around. She wanted them to be gone and she accomplished her objective.”

Gonzales came from a “long line” of abusive people, including drug abuse, sexual and physical abuse.

“She and her mother would do drugs together,” McLean said. “They liked cocaine and marijuana.

“As a result, Reina did not grow up knowing very good parenting skills,” McLean said.

Gonzales didn’t like looking after her child plus Ariana and Tyler, McLean said.

“In fact, she admits she sat around all day smoking heroin, getting high and not paying much attention to the children,” McLean said.

“She couldn’t stand them. She wanted them gone,” McLean said.

Gonzales would call Payne constantly, asking him to help her with the children, which he could sometimes do, McLean said.

Eventually, Payne made attempts to get custody of the children, which had been given to Hallam in the divorce, McLean said.

In April 2005, Payne became “erratic” at work, McLean said.

“There were more and more problems and the company terminated him,” McLean said, suspecting him of abusing drugs.

“He and Reina were both abusing heroin,” McLean said.

“In contrast to Chris being a good, kind and caring for his children, there is evidence Reina is the complete opposite,” McLean said.

One of Gonzales’ friends saw her offer juice to Chris Jr., but deny it to Ariana and Tyler. Another time, the friend’s child broke a cup and Gonzales said she would blame it on Tyler so the friend’s child wouldn’t get blamed, McLean said.

A neighbor reported often hearing Gonzales yelling and the children crying, McLean said.

After being fired, Payne landed “another job, selling heroin,” McClean said.

While Payne and Debbie Reyes, his “boss” were out selling drugs, Gonzales would often call and complain about taking care of the children.

Gonzales would says she didn’t know what to do “and if you don’t come home, I’m gonna kill them,” McLean said.

Eventually, a solution was reached: to keep the children locked in a closet all day.

“She was saying Chris made her do it, but that’s inconsistent with the fact that Chris was the one who loved those children, who cared for the children, who provided for them,” McLean said.

Gonzales accepted responsibility for killing the children by pleading guilty to second-degree murder, for which she will spend 22 years in prison, McLean said.

“She admits every day, all day, she, Reina Gonzales, kept the kids in the closet and would not let them come out,” McLean said. “She was responsible.

“Needless to say, the situation now deteriorated as they began to use more and more drugs,” McLean said.

Despite all the “red flags,” CPS didn’t respond, McLean said.

When Ariana died, “Chris was horribly, horribly surprised and distraught,” McLean said. “He was saddened. The whole day, he gave her CPR. He kept her in bed with him. He didn’t know what to do after it happened. He still doesn’t. She was wasting away and he didn’t know why.

“Sadly, Tyler passed away shortly thereafter,” McLean said. “He was grief-stricken. He did not know what to do.

“Reina just wanted to throw the kids away. Chris couldn’t do that, so he kept them in the storage bin.”

In September 2005, Payne and Gonzales moved out of their West Side apartment to a midtown unit near the Prince Road storage unit where the children’s bodies were kept, McLean said.

When they were evicted from that apartment, the pair moved to Palm Court Inn, with Payne’s father’s help, McLean said. They were there about two weeks when Ariana’s body was found, McLean said.

A pediatric pathologist will testify that broken bones Ariana suffered before death could have been inflicted long before she came to live with Payne and Gonzales, McLean said. A shoulder injury could have been inflicted by an abusive boyfriend of Ariana’s mother, McLean said.

Children in abusive situations often show behavioral problems that the Payne children were exhibiting, McLean noted, saying it was consistent with the condition in which Hallam delivered the children to their father.

“Certainly in this case there’s plenty of blame to go around,” McLean said. “Some of the blame has been accepted. CPS gave Jamie Hallam a million dollars. Reina Gonzales has accepted her part.

Payne “certainly has responsibility,” McLean said.

“We’re not asking for absolution, but asking for a fair and factual assessment as to Chris Payne’s responsiblity,” McLean said.

McLean asked the jury to find him guilty of second-degree murder and reckless child abuse for failing to follow up on seeing that his children were properly cared for.

A jury of seven men and nine women, including alternates, was chosen Tuesday in the capital murder case of Christopher Mathew Payne, 30, who is accused of killing his two young children.

Opening statements are expected Wednesday morning, with the state’s testimony to follow.

Payne was arrested after the decomposing body of his daughter, Ariana Payne, 4, was found in a North Side storage locker Feb. 18, 2007. The body of his son Tyler, 5, has not been found.

If he’s convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Prosecutors estimate they may finish their case by March 6.

Jamie Hallam, the children’s mother, may testify Thursday.

Reina Irene Gonzales, Payne’s former live-in girlfriend and the mother of his surviving child, may testify next Tuesday.

Defense attorneys expect to call a handful of witnesses.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Fields on Tuesday ruled jurors will get to hear evidence of Payne’s past drug use. Prosecutors say that Payne was so addicted to drugs that he spent all his money on them and let his children starve.

If Payne is convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors will ask jurors to find aggravating factors exist that call for the death penalty.

Prosecutors say that more than one murder conviction; that the victims were minors and Payne is an adult; and the cruel, heinous or depraved way the children were killed would call for death. Jurors need only find one of those factors exist to qualify Payne for the death penalty.

If jurors find Payne eligible for the death penalty, defense attorneys will present evidence and testimony they hope will persuade jurors to choose a life sentence over the death penalty.

In Arizona, only jurors can impose a death sentence.

If they don’t choose death, Fields will decide later whether to impose life without parole or life with parole possible after 25 years.

A Mexican man living in Amado pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of attempted cockfighting.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael J. Cruikshank will sentence Jesus Contreras, 43, on March 30.

Contreras was indicted on 27 counts of cockfighting and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia after a raid on his Amado property in September.

Officers saw fighting roosters with spurs on their feet in plain view in Contreras’ yard, court records show.

Police seized 29 birds and a glass pipe.

A Tucson man accused of killing a convenience store clerk has agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder.

Daniel Jesus Chavez, 23, had been charged with first-degree murder in the July 14, 2006, death of Christopher Curtiss Cottle, 50, at an East Side Quik Mart.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini will sentence Chavez on May 1. The maximum sentence for second-degree murder is 22 years.

On Wednesday, Chavez was unsure whether to take the plea.

Defense attorney David Alan Darby told Bernini he urged Chavez to take the plea.

“This is not a whodunit,” Darby said. “This is a natural disaster waiting to happen.”

Darby said he told Chavez if he went to trial, two witnesses were prepared to identify him as the person who shot Cottle, which likely would result in a first-degree murder conviction.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Bernini would have sentenced Chavez to life in prison either without parole or with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Darby said he advised Chavez that, given mitigating factors including a dysfunctional childhood, he could get less than the maximum 22-year sentence, likely 16 years, if he pleaded to second-degree murder.

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison?” Bernini asked Chavez Wednesday.

“The only way to avoid any certainty” of a life sentence is to take the plea, Bernini said.

Chavez, who is illiterate, said parts of the plea confused him.

Darby asked for a day to go over the plea with him.

Members of Cottle’s family who attended Wednesday’s hearing, approved of the plea offer.

Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson, after consulting with Cottle’s family, agreed to a two-day delay.

Chavez was arrested along with his half brother, Hector Taner Karaca, then 17, and another set of half brothers: Manuel Calletano Montaño, then 27, and Armando Ramirez, then 31.

Police say Karaca, Montaño and Ramirez stole beer from the Quik Mart and Cottle followed them outside. Chavez is said to have been waiting outside either in or by a car.

Cottle’s body was found about 12:30 a.m. outside the store. Charges against Karaca, Montaño and Ramirez were dropped in Cottle’s killing.

A Tucson man who killed a friend while playing Russian roulette was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini imposed a slightly mitigated term for a manslaughter charge against Courtney Larsel Robinson, 22, for the September death of longtime friend Jason M. Brant, 22.

Robinson could have gotten up to 21 years in prison.

Robinson was charged with second-degree murder and weapons misconduct in Brant’s death, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge, which factored into Bernini’s sentencing, she said. Bernini also sentenced Robinson to a concurrent 1.5-year prison term for an unrelated attempted forgery charge.

Pima County Superior Court officials notified 22 adult probation department employees this week that they would be laid off April 1.

The employees include surveillance officers, dispatchers, teachers and other support staff.

The layoffs were attributed to “severe budget cutbacks required by the state Legislature in the current fiscal year,” a news release states.

“We looked at every possible way to deal with this and in the end, when we looked at exactly what we were faced with, right now, really, this was the only thing we could do,” said Presiding Judge Jan E. Kearney.

“As you are well aware, the financial picture changes a lot and all I can tell you is this is where we are today,” Kearney said. “It could change tomorrow.

“It’s a terribly sad day.”

Most funding for adult probation services in the state comes from the Arizona Supreme Court’s judicial department budget.

Superior Court gets more than half of its funding for adult probation from the state.

Almost 90 percent of the court’s budget goes toward personnel, the news release states. The court previously cut expenditures “to the bone,” including hiring freezes on 58 vacant positions, 33 of which are in the probation department.

By the close of this fiscal year June 30, at least 80 court staffers will have been laid off, according to the news release. The court also already cut a special probation fee funding that supported other positions, the news release states.

“There is no prospect that state funding for probation will return to its previous levels in the next two fiscal years,” the news release states.

The court also dealt with a 7 percent cut in county funding this year and expects more to come, according to the news release.

In the past few years, the adult probation department has initiated some programs designed not only to cut down on probation revocation, but also to save taxpayers’ dollars by focusing on education and other areas.

Kearney said those programs, even though they saved money, are also in jeopardy.

“There has to be a negative impact,” Kearney said. “These were very, very valuable people for us and the community, which made today an extremely difficult one.”

Affected employees will not receive a severance package, Kearney said.

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On the Web

Pima County Superior Court:

www.sc.pima.gov/

A young Catalina father was sentenced Friday to three years on probation for the death of his 4-month-old son, who died after being left in a closed car for hours.

Pima County Superior Court Judge John S. Leonardo imposed the sentence on Anthony Ryan Kurz, 19, who was convicted of negligent homicide and child abuse in the March 10 death of Adryan Womble-Kurz.

Kurz could have gotten up to 7.5 years in prison.

Court records show Kurz drove his girlfriend, the baby’s mother, to work with the baby strapped into a car seat in the rear of the vehicle. The couple had been arguing.

When Kurz arrived home around 1 p.m., he noticed the door to their home was ajar and went to investigate. He didn’t remember until three hours later that the baby was in the car, records show.

The baby was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, records show.