Cop Shop

A sexual assault crime that was left in the dark for 11 years was finally resolved Wednesday after Mesa police realized their suspect was already behind bars.

In the daybreak hours of April 23, 1997, a Mesa woman was awakened by a man who broke into her apartment near Longmore and Emelita Avenue, grabbed her and sexually assaulted her. The man masturbated in front of the woman, restrained her and threatened to kill her and her roommates, said police reports. The suspect fled the apartment after one of the victim’s roommates woke up and began to scream.

Seven years later police found that the DNA of convicted felon Keith Winfield Ramsdell, 42, matched DNA samples collected at the scene of the sexual assault in 1997. However, police were unable to make an arrest in the case at the time.

According to Mesa police, Ramsdell has a history of sexual assault arrests and other crimes. He was in police custody early in 2004, however police were unable to locate the victim before Ramsdell’s release, and the case once again went cold.

The case was reopened on July 1 when detectives working on cold cases realized that Ramsdell was once again behind bars for crimes committed in 2005.

Ramsdell was interviewed about the case on July 1, but said he had no idea how his DNA came to be in the apartment on 1997. However, according to police, a recent DNA sample collected from Ramsdell matches previous DNA samples from the crime scene.

Ramsdell has been arrested and charged with attempted sexual assault and burglary in the second degree. He is being held for unrelated offenses at the Arizona State Hospital in the Sexually Violent Persons Unit.

Mesa police were on the scene of a double stabbing late Thursday afternoon after a couple’s argument turned lethal.

A man and his girlfriend had been arguing at their apartment near Harris Road and University Drive at around 5:18 p.m., when the argument took a turn for the worse and the woman stabbed him in the chest with a knife, police said.

The victim fled the scene and ran to his brother’s apartment nearby. The victim’s brother and another man left the apartment and returned to confront the suspect. Police said an argument ensued during which the victim’s brother also received several slashes along his arms.

According to police, the victim who was stabbed in the chest remained conscious while being taken to Scottsdale Osborn Healthcare. His condition is unknown. His brother was also treated for non-life-threatening wounds.

Police said the stabbing suspect was taken into custody shortly after they arrived at the scene, but they are not yet releasing any names in the case.

A Tempe police officer and a city employee ended up in the hospital Thursday afternoon when an elderly driver ran a red light and plowed into their unmarked police vehicle.

The 91-year-old driver of the other car was hospitalized in serious condition, police said.The collision forced the police vehicle into another car parked nearby.

The two Tempe employees were treated and then released from Scottsdale Osborn Healthcare. The driver of the other vehicle was taken to Maricopa County Hospital in serious condition.

The intersection at Guadalupe and Rural roads was temporarily closed and reopened at 5 p.m., said police.

Tempe police Sgt. Dan Masters is organizing a fundraiser for a fellow sergeant’s 3-year-old son, who was recently diagnosed with a rare and dangerous enzyme deficiency disease.

Michael ‘Trey’ Lane, the son of Tempe Sgt. Mike Lane, has a rare genetic disorder called Mucopolysaccharidosis VI or Maroteaux Lamy Syndrome or MPS VI. Masters said only 75 people in the U.S. have the condition, and Trey is the only child in Arizona who suffers from it.

Trey’s life expectancy is 11 to 13 years, Masters said, and there is no cure. Trey is receiving a special therapy into his veins to help slow the progression of the disease, but it is expensive and the family could run out of money to pay for it within a year.

Masters has organized a fundraiser for the child and his family to help pay for medical treatments. It will be held 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, 60 E. Fifth St.

The event is $75 per person and includes a silent auction, cocktail hour, raffle, dinner and entertainment. Proceeds from ticket sales, the silent auction and raffle will go toward Trey’s medical trust fund and toward finding a cure for the disease.

To buy tickets, donate a silent auction or raffle item or for sponsorship information e-mail Dan Masters or Robert Pargmann at  treystreasurechest2008 at yahoo.com.

A Washington woman’s disappearance may be tied to a man who was found in a Chandler apartment Tuesday evening, police say.

According to a release from the United States Marshal Service, Ashone Hollinquest, 22, was arrested Tuesday as a person of interest in the disappearance of 19-year-old Tiairra Jo Garcia.

He was found in an apartment on the 100 block of Hamilton Street and arrested along with his girlfriend, 26-year-old Andrea Parr.

Both were booked into the 4th Avenue Jail and are awaiting extradition to Washington.

The bickering over the book continued this morning. Maricopa County’s chief prosecutor, Andrew Thomas (pictured right), a Republican who’s running for re-election this fall, was on KTAR-FM this morning with host Darrell Ankarlo, defending his decision to use public money to promote Ankarlo’s new book. The spending was criticized yesterday by Tim Nelson, a Democrat running to unseat Thomas this fall. The county attorney’s office released a copy of the contract to us yesterday. Here it is: Ankarlo’s contract with the county attorney.

By the way, Ankarlo said on air this morning that he did not receive a dime of public money in the deal, only the opportunity to use the prosecutor’s name and seal on his book tour.

A la The Smoking Gun, here’s the arrest report for hip hop artist Naledge (pictured left, pronounced “Knowledge”), who was arrested over the weekend at a Tempe nightclub. The 25-year-old Chicago resident, whose given name is Jabari Evans, is a rising figure in the hip hop world and was in the midst of a national tour at the time of his arrest. Police say he had to be physically removed from the Cherry Lounge & Pit in downtown Tempe after refusing to obey police demands that he leave the scene of a fight. He was booked on suspicion of interfering with a police investigation and later released on $500 bail.

Nearly 190 animals that Apache Junction police found at a home in deplorable conditions in February won’t be returned to the couple who owned them, officials said Tuesday. Apache Junction City Attorney Joel Stern said the city has also forwarded the case to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office for possible criminal charges. In the civil hearing, a judge ordered that all surviving 189 animals wouldn’t be returned to the family who lives on South Hilton and had kept the dogs, rabbits, chickens, goats, horses, cats, a pig, an African Parrot and a cockatiel in dirty smelly conditions. One horse hadn’t stood up in months and had to be euthanized, baby goats were found soiled and crying and other animals were so sickly they too had to be killed. “We took a lot of the animals, in fact I think we took all of the rabbits and it took most of two days to trim all of the rabbit toenails,” said Pinal County spokeswoman Heather Murphy. Pinal County assisted in the rescue efforts and Murphy said workers stayed overnight to help groom and trim animals, although the case itself was in Apache Junction’s jurisdiction. Stern said the couple who owned the animals were willing to give up all of the pets, except one — a large Great Dane and Mastiff mix — which they told the court belongs to their son. “I thought, you know what?” Stern said. “It was in that house and I don’t think it should go back to anyone else associated with that house.” The courts decided the dog was “cruelly neglected” and also shouldn’t be returned to the family.

At 2 a.m. Tuesday, two men with handguns robbed the Wal-Mart at 1916 S. Lindsay Road in Mesa. A clerk got a vehicle description and reported it to police after the men fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. A Mesa police air unit found a vehicle matching the description in the neighborhood, with occupants acting as if they were lost. After the driver dropped off the passenger, officers spoke with the driver who made incriminating statements. Probable cause was established and police arrested the driver, 27-year-old Carlos Delgadillo, after he confessed. The second individual remains at large.