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Thread: Darnell Jackson Sentenced to 30 Years for 2010 AZ Murder of LEO Carlos Ledesma

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    Darnell Jackson Sentenced to 30 Years for 2010 AZ Murder of LEO Carlos Ledesma


    Police Officer Carlos Luciano Ledesma




    Death Penalty Sought in Chandler Officer's Killing

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two men charged in the killing of a Chandler police officer who was ambushed during a drug sting in July. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley announced Wednesday that his office has filed allegations seeking the death penalty against 36-year-old Darnell Jackson and 34-year-old Eldridge Gittens.

    His office is still deciding whether to seek the death penalty against a third man accused in the killing, 26-year-old Jerry Wayne Cockhearn.

    Officials say three undercover Chandler officers went to a south Phoenix home for a planned rip-off by drug dealers, back in July. The suspects opened fire and killed Detective Carlos Ledesma.

    The other two officers returned fire, killing two suspects and injuring another.

    34-year-old Ledesma was the first Chandler officer killed in the line of duty since 2002.

    Ledesma was married and a father of two. An account has been set up at Wells Fargo, in the name of the Officer Ledesma Family Memorial Fund.

    http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news...lty-10-20-2010

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    Previous coverage

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    8th suspect arrested in shooting death of Chandler detective

    U.S. Marshals have arrested an eighth suspect in Chicago believed to be connected to the July shooting death of Chandler undercover Detective Carlos Ledesma.

    Anthony Jerome Wright, 39, was arrested without incident outside a Walgreens drugstore in Chicago, according to Thomas Henman, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Office in Phoenix. Agents had observed Wright entering and leaving a residence, and then followed Wright, who was traveling with a woman, to the Walgreens. They apprehended him after he got out of his car, Henman said.

    Agents had tracked Wright to various locations in the last three months, including the Virgin Islands, Henman said.

    Wright is facing murder and drug-related charges in connection to Ledesma's death. Ledesma was shot multiple times inside a south Phoenix residence near Baseline Road and 19th Avenue on July 28 during a staged drug deal gone wrong, according to Chandler police. Ledesma later was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.

    Two other officers were injured and two suspects were shot and killed during the shootout in which drug dealers had planned to rip off $250,000 worth of marijuana.

    Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley sought the death penalty in the case last month in Maricopa County Superior Court, requesting that Darnell Jackson, 36, and Eldridge Gittens, 34, be sentenced to death.

    Romley's office also requested a 60-day continuance in the court proceedings so lab work in the case can be completed and submitted to the county attorney's Capital Review Committee to determine whether it will seek the death penalty against Jerry Wayne Cockhearn, 26, a third defendant charged in the case.

    http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/loc...cc4c002e0.html

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    Chandler detective's death in reverse sting weighs heavy

    It was a killing that left Chandler reeling.

    Chandler Detective Carlos Ledesma, 34, a beloved officer and family man with a ready smile and penchant for weightlifting, was slain in Phoenix during a drug deal gone wrong. Four bullets pierced him as he sat, unsuspecting, at the scene of a sting that was supposed to culminate with the arrest of suspects and seizure of their cash.


    Funeral for slain Chandler police detective

    Instead, the 10 or more suspected dealers intended to rip off the marijuana, opening fire instead of paying out cash, police said.

    As the smoke cleared from the bullet-ridden south Phoenix house, authorities would learn two other Chandler undercover detectives were wounded, while two suspected dealers were killed and another pair shot. The other two detectives survived.

    Now, a year later, the emotions left by Ledesma's death are as raw as ever, said Chandler Lt. John Shearer.

    "He is absolutely in the forefront of everybody's thoughts. That has not subsided," said Shearer, in charge of the Special Investigations Section of the Criminal Investigations Bureau. "I am sure he is thought of every day by people who work here."

    On the surface, the Chandler Police Department seems relatively unchanged.

    But Ledesma's death has affected the way Chandler operates reverse drug stings. Since his death, Chandler officers no longer go undercover to sell drugs, according to numerous reports on drug reversals obtained by The Republic. Confidential informants assume that role.

    Other changes may be coming after officers complete their internal review into the deal that killed Ledesma.

    Reverse stings climbing

    Reverse stings have continued at a record pace in Chandler, according to records.

    In the first half of 2011, Chandler police and informants performed 32 drug reversals, seizing a total of $3.2 million in cash and making 124 arrests.

    This is higher than all the reversals, arrests and cash seized in 2010, when 24 reversals were conducted, $1.4 million seized and 81 arrested.

    Between July 2006 and July 21, 2011, officers have seized $10.5million.

    "We know the best way to hurt a dope organization is by seizing money," Shearer said. "We don't like anyone to think it is a money grab. The reversals themselves are a really good way to hurt these organizations."

    The department puts the money into state or county interest-bearing accounts administered by the state Attorney General's Office and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a Chandler police spokesman.

    The funds come back to Chandler, which has rules on what it can buy.

    For example, it can't fund salaries but can pay the fees of informants and the costs of weapons, new technology and a police dog, Favazzo said.
    More stings in Chandler

    Another obvious change in the first half of 2011 is the location of the drug stings, marking the most ever conducted, 21, in Chandler, compared with 11 in Phoenix. In previous years the majority of deals were in Phoenix. In 2010, for example, 19 were in Phoenix and three in Chandler.

    "Phoenix was the location of most cases because it is centrally located and specific facilities were used to conduct the transactions," Shearer said.

    The department came under some fire for spreading beyond city boundaries. Officers have stressed that crime knows no boundaries, and the drugs they get off the street in one city are also kept off the streets of other cities.

    "The Valley is my community," Shearer said.

    Chandler followed the protocol of alerting Phoenix and a central database system, police have said.

    On the deadly night of July 28, 2010, Chandler police told a Phoenix communications employee they were in the city conducting a drug deal in the 2300 block of West Maldonado Drive, according to 911 tapes and dispatch recordings.

    But the message didn't get to higher ups, who sounded surprised in the recordings that Chandler police were in Phoenix.

    A Chandler sergeant used 911 to urge the Phoenix Fire Department to hurry to care for the injured. The Chandler police chief telephoned Phoenix to determine whether officers were down.

    After the confusion of the rapid-fire gunfight, several men fled before the Chandler Special Assignment Unit swooped in.

    In all, eight suspects have been arrested, charged and remain in jail on high bonds. Two were captured months later, one in Tennessee and the other in Chicago. Two, Doarnell Jackson and Eldrige Gittens, face the death penalty.

    Trial set for 2012

    The eight cases are wending their way through the system, with requests for new grand juries and other motions.

    "We are working towards trial. The trial is not set until December 2012," said Jerry Cobb, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. "There are no current plea negotiations."

    Alan Tavassoli, attorney for Jackson, who is accused of firing four shots into Ledesma with an AK-47, has many questions about the police version of the case.

    He has requested court permission to test the slugs found at the scene, some of which he said are missing, because there may be evidence that Ledesma was shot from different angles and that bullets entered from two different sides.

    "These are really important issues," Tavassoli said. He said the evidence might show that Ledesma was accidentally shot at least once by one of the police officers.

    The state argues in court papers that the alleged dealers always planned to rob the sellers. A bag of counterfeit money was found at the scene, the state said, that was supposed to represent $250,000 to buy 500 pounds of marijuana.

    "Multiple witnesses saw the money (earlier in the day) and it was good," Tavassoli said. "All of a sudden this dummy bag turns up."

    He said it was not photographed on the first day of the investigation.

    "It's either incredible incompetence or they switched out the money," Tavassoli said of police.

    Neither Favazzo nor Cobb commented on Tavassoli's theories. Cobb said that prosecutors don't comment on ongoing cases.

    The effect of Ledesma's death, meanwhile, was Valley-wide.

    "It was a traumatic event," Phoenix police Sgt. Steve Martos said.

    http://www.azcentral.com/community/c...#ixzz1TKfKlGGQ

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    Slain officer's widow gives tearful testimony at hearing

    The wife of a slain Chandler police detective sobbed Tuesday in court as she urged a judge to keep the bond at $3 million for the eighth defendant arrested in her husband's murder last year.

    The mother of murder suspect Anthony Wright sobbed, too, as she implored the judge to lower her son's bond so he can come home to his family.

    In the end, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Paul McMurdie reduced Wright's bond to $1 million, which family members said they would have to hold fund-raisers to earn.

    Undercover Detective Carlos Ledesma was fatally shot July 28, 2010 during an undercover drug sting in south Phoenix -turned rip-off. Ledesma and two other officers posed as marijuana sellers, and as the deal was about to close, suspects opened fire on them, according to court records.

    Ledesma and two suspected drug dealers were killed and two officers and two suspects were injured, and have since recovered.

    Wright, 40, was arrested in Chicago in October , the final suspect arrested and held on bonds of between $2 and $3 million in the case. Six were arrested in Arizona, two face the death penalty.

    When Wright was arrested three months after the seventh suspect, Corey Rydell Royalty, was apprehended in Tennessee, Phoenix police said they had arrested two "major partners in setting up the drug transaction which ultimately led to the death of Detective Ledesma."

    Choking on her words as tears leaked down her face, Ledesma's wife said that in two days, it will be the one-year anniversary of the day she buried her husband.

    "I don't have a husband," she said. "My children don't have a father."

    Not even $3 million is enough, she said, adding that she remains concerned for the safety of her children.

    One of the recovered detectives also testified Tuesday, asking the judge to keep the bond high. Ledesma, he said, "lost his life partially from this defendant. I don't see any reason for him to have the opportunity to run."

    The prosecutor, Kirsten Valenzuela, said Wright has no incentive to come to court. She said the only collateral his family has is drug money, which evoked gasps from about 10 of Wright's relatives.

    The statement also outraged defense attorney Daniel Raynak, who said, "there is no indication in the world that they have been involved in drug dealing."

    Raynak argued no evidence connects Wright to the scene or the deal.

    "His only connection is he happens to know someone who lives in that house," Raynak said.

    Outside court, several family members said that a woman who lives in the house where Ledesma was killed gave birth to one of Wright's 15 children.

    Inside court, Wright's sister Sharita Wright said that her brother "is the backbone of our family. He talks so much with his children, his nieces and his nephews . . . We come from a Catholic family. None of us are drug dealers."

    His mother, Alicia Lewis, testified that she is a licensed cosmetologist in three states.

    "I am here on behalf of my son. My son is innocent," she said.

    She added that just because her family members "are people of color" doesn't mean they do drugs.

    McMurdie responded that he would never make that assumption, to which Lewis responded that her comment wasn't meant for him, implying it was for Valenzuela.

    Wright's stepfather, Thomas Lewis, said he raised nine children and 43 grandchildren, and "all of my family has lived an average life. Just a group of people trying to survive."

    http://www.azcentral.com/community/c...#ixzz1TvW4LpZh

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    July 21, 2016

    Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in Chandler officer's shooting


    By Claire M. Roney
    Arizona Republic

    A man accused of participating in a drug deal that led to the killing of a Chandler police officer in 2010 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday.

    Thandika Taweh Singleton also pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to solicitation to commit possession of marijuana for sale.

    His sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 22.

    Detective Carlos Ledesma died in a gunfight after an undercover drug deal went bad. Ledesma and other officers posed as dealers and showed two suspects a marijuana sample before arranging for a sale at a home in south Phoenix.

    Singleton and another suspect were accused of presenting $250,000 in cash to buy 500 pounds of marijuana from the undercover officers.

    Singleton, 45, was among multiple people arrested. The goal of the Chandler "reverse drug sting" was to arrest several drug-dealer suspects and seize $250,000.

    Three undercover officers were armed with service pistols when they approached eight suspects with an arsenal including a shotgun, an AK-47 and a variety of semi-automatic handguns.

    Undercover detectives had arrived at the south Phoenix home with 23 bales of marijuana when four armed men arrived, entered the home and "all hell blew up," as one suspect told Phoenix police shortly after the confrontation. Ledesma was killed by four shots from an assault rifle.

    Arrested were Singleton, Darnell Reuna Jackson, John Howard Webber, Jerry Wayne Cockhearn Jr., Eldridge Auzzele Gittens, Christopher Paul Gonzales, Corey Royalty and Anthony Jerome Wright.

    Gonzales pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October 2012. Gittens pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and possession and use of a weapon in a drug offense in October 2013. Webber pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a marijuana violation on July 15.

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...ting/87409558/
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    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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    August 24, 2017

    Man gets 30 years for killing Chandler officer

    12news.com

    PHOENIX (AP) - Another man charged in the killing of an undercover Chandler police officer during a 2010 undercover drug bust has been sentenced to prison.

    Doarnell Jackson was sentenced Thursday to a 30-year prison term for second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit possession of marijuana for sale.

    He also was sentenced to four years of probation for aggravated assault and misconduct involving weapons.

    Jackson pleaded guilty in the case last month.

    Police say 34-year-old Detective Carlos Ledesma died in a July 2010 gunfight.

    They say Ledesma and other officers posed as dealers and showed two suspects a marijuana sample before arranging for a sale at a home in south Phoenix.

    Thandika Singleton and John Howard Webber previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the case and are serving their prison sentences.

    https://www.12news.com/article/news/...icer/467123772
    Last edited by aljazres; 05-14-2018 at 11:35 AM.

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