Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer
Law and Order Report

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer
Law and Order Report

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer
Law and Order Report

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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 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 sentence Payne to death.

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

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

A Tucson woman was sentenced Tuesday to 22 years in prison for the shooting death of a former teacher for the mentally ill.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank imposed the aggravated sentence as stipulated in Kathryn Diana Dominica’s plea agreement.

Dominica, 53, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge, but agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for the 22-year sentence, which she must serve day-for-day.

The 66-year-old victim, Gayle Patrick, was physically disabled due to scoliosis and bought medical treatments through Dominica, court records show.

Dominica, who legally changed her name from Denise Diane Holt in 1996 for “pen name” reasons, allegedly used Patrick’s credit card information fraudulently, court records indicate.

Patrick’s body was found March 17 in the trunk of her own car, wrapped in sheets from Dominica’s home, court records show.

Woman sentenced to 22 years in slaying of ex-teacher

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

Prospective jurors will be brought in Tuesday for questioning by prosecutors and defense attorneys in the capital murder trial of Christopher Mathew Payne, 30.

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 never been found.

Questionnaires were given previously to 250 prospective jurors and, based on their answers, 87 were eliminated.

Some of the prospective jurors were eliminated because they had conflicts with the trial dates or couldn’t afford to sit on a panel for weeks at a time.

The trial is expected to extend at least until mid-March.

Others were dismissed because of their strong stance against the death penalty.

One hundred of the remaining prospective jurors will be brought in Tuesday for direct questioning. If there aren’t enough jurors for a jury of 12 and four alternates, more prospective jurors will be brought in Thursday.

While the public is allowed in during jury questioning, seating will be tight.

Deputy County Attorney Bunkye Chi said she expects opening statements may be delivered Feb. 25. However, it’s not known yet how long it will take to pick a jury.

After openings are delivered, prosecutors will begin presenting witnesses, including Payne’s former live-in girlfriend, Reina Irene Gonzales. Gonzales, 24, also faced first-degree murder charges and the death penalty, but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Payne.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard S. Fields recently allowed prosecutors to use statements Payne made over a five-hour period on March 1, 2007, while he was being questioned by police.

At that time, police had found Ariana’s body but didn’t know if Tyler was dead or just missing. Payne indicated in his statements that he knew both children had died in his care and he tried to bargain with police to tell them the location of Tyler’s body.

Police said they suspect the boy’s body was thrown in the trash and dumped in the Los Reales Landfill, but the body was never found and he is presumed dead.

If Payne is convicted, prosecutors will ask the jury to decide whether certain aggravating factors exist to allow them to pursue the death penalty. One factor that would qualify Payne for the death penalty is the fact that the victims were young.

If jurors determine Payne is eligible for death, defense attorneys will present mitigating evidence that they hope will persuade jurors to choose a life sentence instead.

Prosecutors complained last week that they had yet to see a report from the defense’s mitigation expert so they could prepare for rebuttal.

Assistant Public Defender John O’Brien told Fields his mitigation expert wasn’t preparing a report and wouldn’t be available to talk to prosecutors until late this week, which clearly displeased Deputy County Attorney Susan Eazer.

Usually, mitigation experts are called in early on in a death penalty case. They talk to family, friends, teachers, neighbors and others who know the defendant and collect vital records that trace the defendant’s life.

Mitigation also can include psychological reports.

Defense attorneys are required to disclose mitigation findings to prosecutors, just as prosecutors are required to disclose possible damning information to the defense.

Over the past year, prosecutors and defense attorneys have constantly bickered over whether they were getting the disclosure required.

Payne’s trial was expected to begin late last month, but O’Brien asked for at least a monthlong delay to complete mitigation. Fields allowed for a two-week delay, but refused to extend the trial date farther.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in Payne double-homicide trial

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

A Tucson man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manslaughter for a vehicle crash that killed a 9-year-old girl riding on an all-terrain vehicle.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman will sentence John Michael Kellogg, 24, on March 12.

Kellogg was charged with manslaughter, aggravated assault and criminal damage for the March 14 crash that killed Lizette Ruiz of West Chumblers Road.

Lizette’s stepfather – Victoriano Diaz-Morales, 42, who also was on the all-terrain vehicle, sustained injuries that were not life-threatening. Neither wore a helmet.

Detectives estimated that Kellogg was going at least 66 mph in a 25-mph zone on a dirt road when his Jeep Cherokee collided with the ATV. Both vehicles were traveling west on Chumblers Road near South Spur Drive.

Kellogg is being held without bond in the Pima County Jail pending sentencing.

Tucson man, 24, pleads guilty to manslaughter in ATV crash that kills 9-year-old girl

Citizen Staff Writer

A.J. FLICK

ajflick@tucsoncitizen.com

Services for James P. Angiulo, known as “Judge Jim” of Pima County Consolidated Justice Court, are set for Friday.

Mr. Angiulo, 61, died Sunday at his Tucson home of brain cancer.

Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday at Bring’s Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway.

Services will be Friday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Pius X Catholic Church, 1800 N. Camino Pio Decimo.

In addition to his law career, Mr. Angiulo was an anesthesiologist who came to Tucson in 1975 to teach at the University of Arizona, said Steve Nash, executive director of the Pima County Medical Society.

In 1977, Mr. Angiulo left his teaching duties to head a group of anesthesiologsts to provide services for the new Kino Community Hospital.

In 1985, while still running the anesthesiologist program at Kino, Mr. Angiulo earned his UA law degree in 1985. After passing the bar exam on his first try, he began practicing law with his father.

Mr. Angiulo still served as administrator of the anesthesiologist group and continued practicing, Nash said.

“He was called in on the very complex cases,” Nash said.

Mr. Angiulo served on the county Medical Society Board in the early 1990s and was elected president in 1996, Nash said.

In the late 1990s, Mr. Angiulo became speaker of the house for the Arizona Medical Association, Nash said.

During his run for speaker of the house, Mr. Angiulo was being introduced to the membership by someone who admitted she didn’t know how to pronounce or spell his name.

“It’s the usual spelling of Angiulo,” Mr. Angiulo quipped, according to Nash.

“He had a great sense of humor,” Nash said.

In 2000, when Mr. Angiulo retired from medicine, the Pima County Medical Society named him Physician of the Year.

“It’s a pat on the back for a hard-working doctor who has contributed to medicine and the community,” Nash said.

“He was very well liked and an original thinker, who got to the nub of the thing,” Nash said.

“He was an excellent administrator in medicine as well as courts,” Nash added.

Mr. Angiulo was appointed justice of the peace pro tem at Justice Court in 1985 and in 1995 was appointed presiding judge at Sahuarita Municipal Court.

He was elected to Justice Court in 2002 and voted presiding judge by his colleagues in 2005. He was re-elected in 2006. He ran unopposed both times.

Mr. Angiulo retired from medicine in 2000, but kept his medical license up to date.

He is survived by his wife, Nina; daughter Jaime Avery; and sons Michael and Matthew Angiulo.

Services for James P. Angiulo set for Friday