Cop Shop

A toddler who wandered away from a Tempe apartment early Sunday prompted a panicked call to the police, but the boy was found minutes later in a neighbor’s residence.

Two-year-old Joshua Major was returned to his family “perfectly fine,” police spokesman Brandon Banks said.

According to Banks, around 3:30 a.m. Joshua’s babysitter noticed the child was out of his bed and the door was ajar at the apartment in the 3200 block of South Dorsey Lane. Joshua was last seen around 1:45 a.m., the babysitter told police.

Joshua’s guardian, his uncle, was the babysitter’s first call. A search turned up empty, and that’s’ when the police were summoned for help.

A wrong way driver collided with two cars on the I-10 freeway early Sunday, killing a passenger of one of the cars and injuring two others. The person driving in the wrong direction was also pronounced dead on the scene.

The driver sped through an eastbound closure area while driving westbound around 2:15 a.m. in Tempe, according to a public safety release. The driver continued through the Broadway Curve when a pick-up truck and a three-passenger silver vehicle were hit.

A passenger in the silver vehicle was pronounced dead on the scene while the other two were transported to area hospitals. One passenger is in critical condition and the other has life-threatening injuries. According to the release, the person in the pick-up was not taken to a hospital.

The identities have not yet been released in order to inform the families, said officer James Warriner of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The road was cleared of accident-related closures around 7 a.m., Warriner said.

Updates on this story will be available throughout the day on EastValleyTribune.com.

UPDATE (2:15 p.m.): Six people were injured, two seriously, in a two-vehicle crash today near Pecos and Higley roads in Gilbert. The most seriously injured were flown to local hospitals and expected to survive, said Gilbert police spokesman Detective Joe Gilligan. Four others with less-serious injuries were taken by ambulances.

The crash happened at 12:28 p.m. when the driver of a red Toyota SUV turned left in front of an oncoming vehicle, Gilligan said. The SUV rolled and traffic was congested in the area for some time.

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LAST POST (12:56 p.m.): Three people with serious injuries were airlifted to local hospitals in just the past half hour after their vehicle rolled over at Pecos and Higley roads in Gilbert.

Information from the scene is still scarce and police don’t yet know what caused the crash. Detective Joe Gilligan, Gilbert police spokesman, said it’s not yet clear whether the injuries are life-threatening.

A Maricopa County jury on Thursday found a former Methodist youth minister from Gilbert guilty of molesting a 13-year-old girl who was the daughter of family friends.

James Ward Chapman III, 40, was convicted of a count each of child molestation and child abuse for the December 2006 incident in which he crawled into the girl’s bed and molested her.

Chapman was a volunteer youth minister at First United Methodist Church, and prosecutors with the county attorney’s office said the girl thought of him as a trusted friend.

The case first came to the attention of police when the girl told school counselors about the incident last year.

Chapman’s trial lasted just three days, with opening arguments beginning Tuesday and the jury reaching its decision Thursday afternoon.

When Chapman is sentenced April 24, he could face up to 22 years in prison.

Mesa police are trying to find a man who was bound in duct tape and beat by three assailants in the street Wednesday night.

According to police, witnesses saw the beating in the 1200 block of South Mansard about 8:30 p.m. and said one of the offenders fired a shot at the victim as he ran away.

When police arrived they checked homes in the area and found a second man with duct tape on his arms in the 9000 block of E. Gable Avenue.

The second victim said he was home when three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, came into his house, bound him with the tape and searched the house.

Detective Diana Tapia said police aren’t sure what the relationship is between the two victims.

The first victim still hasn’t been found, she said.

A group posing as contractors robbed a Gilbert couple Wednesday.

The group of robbers agreed with the couple to do roof repairs on their home in the 100 block of East Elliot Road.

One of the victims caught one of the robbers going through her stuff in the house and she asked him to leave.

The woman went to pay the group outside, where one of them snatched a satchel from her hand.

The three men and one pregnant woman ran to a white SUV and left.

Three men tried to rob a Mesa bank Thursday, but left without money.

According to detective Diana Tapia, Mesa police spokeswoman, the men — two of whom were armed with handguns — walked into Chase Bank, 1761 W. Baseline Road about 10:36 a.m.

One of them approached a teller but for some unknown reason they left suddenly.

A Gilbert man pleaded guilty this week to federal fraud charges for a scheme he set up with his brother-in-law to net them $2.3 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix announced today.

Anthony McCutcheon, 45, of Gilbert and brother-in-law Warren Rice Jr., 42, of Tucson pleaded guilty in federal district court in Phoenix to a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and a count of wire fraud, according to federal prosecutors.

The two apparently created a dummy company and worked together to charge McCutcheon’s employer, First Data Resources in Chandler, for products that were never delivered. Their scheme lasted for nine years. Each man could be sentenced with up to 20 years in prison for the crimes.