Cop Shop

Police said a man was arrested after he walked into a Mesa fast-food restaurant, ordered something that wasn’t on the menu and then yelled a racial slur at employees and customers.

Larry Keith Day, 64, of Phoenix, was jailed Saturday on suspicion of one count of assault and threatening and intimidating, two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of criminal trespass, police said.

According to Mesa police, Day walked into the Wendy’s at 1201 W. Main St. just after 10 a.m. and ordered items that weren’t on the menu. When a woman working as the manager explained that the restaurant doesn’t serve the food he ordered, he started shouting and became verbally abusive.

Mesa police spokesman Detective Steve Berry said Day yelled, “(Expletive) make me what I said” and told Hispanic customers and employees to “go back to your own country” while calling them a racial slur.

The woman again asked Day to leave, but this time he raised his fist in the air as if he were going to punch her. Other employees circled around to help the woman, and Day left.

A patrol officer saw Day sitting across the street and arrested him.

A man was arrested Thursday after police say he sneaked into his neighbor’s home and tried to rape her.

Police arrested Viet Nguyen, 19, of Mesa, on suspicion of attempted sexual assault, second-degree burglary and assault, court records say.

Nguyen is suspected of sneaking into his neighbor’s apartment near Stapley and University drives and standing over her as she slept on the couch, unbuttoning his shirt and trying to get on top of her. Court records say the woman put her hands and knees against his chest and screamed, prompting her husband to come out of a bedroom.

Court records say the husband grabbed the intruder and told his wife to open the door so he could throw him out, but the husband tripped, fell and hit his head. The intruder then began punching the husband in the head while the woman tried to pull the man off him. The couple went back into their apartment and called management of the complex, who called police.

Police went to Nguyen’s apartment and found him with a bloody nose.  They also found a note he had left behind in the woman’s apartment saying that he wanted to have sex with her. Police found another note in Nguyen’s apartment mentioning another sex act with the woman and a third note he had with him saying that he was sorry for what he did.

Court records say that Nguyen admitted he said he was going to rape her.

Police found a suspected sexual predator hiding in a closet on Wednesday and a missing 14-year-old New Mexico girl who is pregnant with his child.

Frank Lerma Gamez, 37, of Mesa was arrested in the 300 block of East 10th Avenue about 1 a.m., police said. Police first learned about Gamez earlier this week when a woman saw a teenage girl in an apartment complex who looked like a girl on a missing persons poster in a local store.

Police went to the apartment complex and found a 14-year-old who at first denied her real name, but eventually told officers. Police confirmed that the girl was listed as a runaway juvenile from New Mexico and learned that she is six months pregnant, and she admitted that Gamez is the baby’s father.

Investigators figured out that the girl met Gamez on the Internet and the two sent text messages to each other. Gamez bought the girl a bus ticket to Arizona, and she has lived with him ever since, police said.

After Gamez was arrested, police learned he also has a warrant in Colorado for a similar incident involving a 16-year-old.
When police found Gamez in a closet, he at first refused to come out, but was zapped with a Taser and taken into custody. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries he suffered while trying to flee police.

Gamez was released from the hospital and booked into Mesa City Jail on three counts of sexual conduct with a minor, one count of unlawful imprisonment, one count of resisting arrest and one count of aggravated assault on a police officer.

A man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of chasing his estranged wife in his car on U.S. 60, then ramming into her car while his 2-year-old daughter rode with him.

Court records show Zephaniah Camelo Trujillo, 25, of Mesa was arrested on two counts of endangerment involving domestic violence.

Camelo is suspected of loading his 2-year-old daughter into his car at 5 a.m. and driving from west Mesa to east Mesa to find his estranged wife at her boyfriend’s home. Court records say he admitted to police that he grabbed a large kitchen knife to take with him just in case he needed to use it against the boyfriend.

Camelo told police that he saw her vehicle turning onto westbound U.S. 60 and that he made a U-turn and followed her. He said he accelerated to about 65 mph and struck the back of her vehicle to try to force her off the freeway so he could “talk” with her, court records say.

He admitted that he was angry during the incident and “would do anything to make her love me,” court records say. Also, he said he has threatened to kill himself in the past and has asked his wife to run over him and kill him if she didn’t want to be with him.

When the woman pulled off the freeway, court records say Camelo followed her and assaulted her.

“His propensity for violence is increasing and his lack of regard for the safety of his child, spouse and her new relationship is of grave concern,” court records say. “He was served with an Order of Protection while in custody.”