3rd trial set for man accused of slaying 2
A Tucson man accused of shooting two men to death in March will be tried a third time after rejecting a plea agreement Wednesday.
Daniel Renteria is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 14 in the deaths of James Marschinke, 49, and Richard Rue Jr., 40.
Renteria, 28, shot the men five days after his 3-year-old son told him Marschinke had been sexually abusing him. He told investigators Rue had threatened to kill him if he reported Marschinke to police.
A Pima County grand jury refused to indict Renteria on first-degree murder charges and indicted him on manslaughter charges instead.
The first trial resulted in a 10-2 split with the majority voting for a conviction. The second set of jurors were more evenly split.
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On Wednesday, Renteria turned down a plea that could have resulted in his being placed on probation at best or 25 years in prison at worst.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Charles Sabalos told Renteria he couldn't promise him, but he was inclined to sentence him to five years in prison with a term of probation to follow.
Renteria said he didn't want to risk it because the potential range was so large. He remains in jail.
Kim Smith
Oro Valley woman ID'd as crash fatality
Police identified the 84-year-old woman killed Tuesday when she crashed her car into a tree as Alice Elliot of Oro Valley.
The crash was on East Rancho Vistoso Boulevard near North Honey Bee Trail just before 1:30 p.m. said Oro Valley Police Department spokeswoman Liz Wright.
Fernanda Echavarri
$2 million is seized at Nogales entry port
Authorities seized more than $2 million in undeclared cash at the Nogales port of entry last week in two separate routine stops.
On Nov. 6, Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a 24-year-old woman from Mexico leaving the U.S. and during the inspection they found bundles of cash hidden in her van, according to a CBP news release.
The woman had about $937,000 and was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the release said.
Two days later CBP officers stopped a 42-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man from Mexico leaving the country in a pickup truck, and after routine questioning they found about $1,156,000 in undeclared cash hidden in the roof of the truck, according to the release.
Officers seized the money and ICE took the couple in for further investigation.
Fernanda Echavarri
Driver killed avoiding a horse is identified
The man killed in a crash Tuesday involving a horse near Ryan Air Field has been identified as Philip Visconti, reported the Department of Public Safety.
Visconti, 60, of Tucson was driving a pickup west on Arizona 86 just after 7 p.m. when he tried to avoid a horse in the road and lost control of the truck, said Quentin Mehr of the DPS.
The truck rolled, Mehr said, ejecting Visconti and injuring a passenger, who were not wearing seat belts.
A sheriff's deputy traveling east at the time of the crash hit the horse but was not injured, said Deputy Jason Ogan, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
The horse was killed.
Fernanda Echavarri
