Triano's ex-wife returned to Tucson
The ex-wife of a Tucson businessman who was killed in 1996 when a bomb planted in his car exploded has been returned to Tucson.
Pamela Phillips was taken to the Pima County jail late Friday. A sheriff's spokesman said Phillips was brought to Tucson by U.S. marshals.
She was arrested in December 2009 in Vienna on a warrant charging her in the slaying of Gary Triano.
Triano was killed Nov. 1, 1996, when someone remotely detonated a pipe bomb placed inside a canvas bag on the passenger seat of his car at La Paloma Country Club.
In 2008, Pima County sheriff's detectives and prosecutors gathered enough evidence to obtain an indictment against Phillips and Ronald Young, a former boyfriend of Phillips, charging them with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
People are also reading…
They said Phillips hired Young to kill Triano for a $2 million life insurance policy.
Young was arrested immediately in California. Phillips was living in Aspen, Colo., at the time but had flown to Europe before she could be arrested.
Young was convicted in April in Triano's murder and sentenced to two life terms.
Missing baby girl found safe; man held
A 5-month-old girl taken Wednesday night from a South Tucson apartment complex was found safe early Friday, and the man accused of taking her was arrested, police said.
Merle Vincent Zeena, 27, was booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of kidnapping, according to a South Tucson Police Department news release.
Zeena and the girl were found about 4 a.m., the release said. The girl was unharmed.
She was reported missing about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday after her grandmother woke up and found her gone from a unit at the Borden's Court Apartments, 300 E. 33rd St.
Zeena had been at the apartment visiting.
The girl has been placed into temporary CPS custody, the release said.
Brian J. Pedersen
Five are indicted in gift-card scheme
Five Mexican citizens were indicted Wednesday on federal credit-card and wire-fraud charges in a scheme that officials say resulted in more than $470,000 in purchases using fake gift cards.
Secret Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Daniela Acosta-Ayon, Dagoberto Bringas-Lopez, Victor Andres Farhat-Alvarez, Jorge Gonzalez-Barron and Efrain Limon-Lopez on June 3 after raiding an apartment near East Prince Road and North First Avenue and a mobile home near West Ruthrauff Road and North La Cholla Boulevard, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
During the raid agents found the group in possession of more than 50 fraudulently encoded gift cards, two credit card encoders, two embossers and 500 blank gift cards, court records show.
The group is alleged to have purchased stolen credit card numbers from Russia, then embossed them on gift cards to make purchases at stores throughout the country, court records show.
Some members of the group would then resell the stolen goods, according to court records.
A fraud investigator with Citibank estimated that members of the group had made at least $470,000 in purchases with the fake cards prior to their arrests, court records show.
The five defendants are scheduled to be arraigned July 15 in federal court.
Brian J. Pedersen
Man held in attempt to stab border agent
An 18-year-old Willcox man was arrested Thursday after authorities said he attempted to stab a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Douglas.
The man, whose name was not released, was attempting to re-enter the U.S. at the Douglas Port of Entry about 3 p.m. Thursday when customs agents noticed he kept his hands in his pockets, according to a CBP news release.
When agents asked him to take his hands out of his pocket he produced a knife and attempted to stab one of the agents, the release said.
The agent blocked the stabbing attempt, and the man was detained. He faces charges of assault on a federal officer.
Brian J. Pedersen
On StarNet: Find an interactive map of reported crimes in the city of Tucson, updated every morning with the previous day's data, at go.azstarnet.com/crime
