(FLORENCE, AZ) - A New Mexico man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of a construction worker on the jobsite.

On August 28^th, 2023, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Danielle Harris sentenced Michael Tyner, 40, to 20 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Tyner pled guilty to Attempt to Commit First Degree Murder, a Class Two Felony with two prior felony convictions.

In April 2022, the Gila River Police Department responded to the area of Gilbert Road and Hunt Highway reference a shooting. Officers located a man on a construction site who sustained two gunshot wounds to the lower back and leg. Witnesses on scene described the suspect as a man wearing a long sleeve blue shirt and jeans with long hair. The suspect had fled the scene.

During the course of the investigation, officers attempted to pull over a Toyota Tacoma and the driver refused to stop. A vehicle pursuit was initiated, which led through Sacaton and Chandler, coming to an end when the driver of the vehicle collided with a Chandler Police patrol unit near Gilbert and Riggs Roads. The driver, identified as Michael Tyner, was taken into custody. Investigators noted Tyner matched the description of the shooting suspect.

The shooting victim told officers he was working on a job site as a driller when he noticed another man holding a metal pipe with long hair. While the victim thought the man was another worker, that’s when he got shot and suddenly felt pain in his back and fell to the ground. The victim indicated the suspect continued to shoot at him while he was on the ground. The victim indicated he did not know the suspect, who eventually ran away.

Investigators were able to locate a Toyota Tacoma on surveillance video at the construction site. When shown a photo array, both a witness and the victim positively identified Tyner as the suspect.

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(FLORENCE, AZ,  August 21st, 2023) - A Maricopa man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for multiple felony offenses including possession of dangerous drugs for sale, attempted first degree murder and participating in a criminal street gang.

On August 14th, 2023 Pinal County Superior Court Judge Daniel Washburn sentenced Joey Mata, 38, to 20 years flat time in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Mata pled guilty to Attempted First Degree Murder, a Class 2 Dangerous Felony; Participating in a Criminal Street Gang, a Class Two Felony; and Possession of Dangerous Drugs for Sale, a Class Two Felony.

The three cases include the below separate incidents:

In April, 2016 Mata went to another man's residence, waited outside, and shot at him when the victim came out of the house. The victim pursued Mata and they ended up in an alleyway where Mata fired more shots at the victim. Investigators determined the victim and Mata knew each other and Mata was identified as the suspect. (Attempted First Degree Murder).

In January, 2022, while in custody of the Pinal County Detention Facility, a detention officer located a handwritten note, called a 'Kite,' in the pod where Mata and other members of the Arizona Mexican Mafia were housed. The note was a directive from the highest ranking member of the Arizona Mexican Mafia to assault night staff at the jail. The Arizona Department of Public Safety conducted a handwriting comparison and confirmed Mata as the author (Participating in a Criminal Street Gang).

While out on bail for the two prior incidents, Mata was pulled over for a traffic stop by the Casa Grande Police Department in January 2023. During the traffic stop, an officer noticed drug paraphernalia in plain view.  While Mata was detained, officers searched the vehicle and located seven pounds of methamphetamine, a digital scale, and several thousand dollars in cash, among other items (Possession of Dangerous Drugs for Sale).

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(FLORENCE, AZ) - A jury has sentenced an inmate within the Arizona Department of Corrections to death for the murder of another inmate nearly a decade ago.

On August 1^st, 2023, a Pinal County Superior Court jury sentenced Julio Salazar, 41, to death.

A jury previously found Salazar guilty of Premeditated First Degree Murder, a Class One Felony.

On August 16th, 2014, staff at the ASPC-Eyman complex in Florence responded to an incident in the basketball enclosure, and found inmate Lino Flores, 53, lying face up in a pool of blood. The suspect, who was also inside the basketball enclosure, was identified as inmate Julio Salazar, who had blood covering his shoes and socks.

One of the security cameras captured the incident on video. The video shows another inmate placing a ‘shank’ inside a water cooler within the basketball area prior to Salazar’s arrival. Salazar is shown on video removing the item from the cooler and attacking Flores, stabbing him in the head and body while playing basketball. Salazar also punched Flores multiple times in the head, kicked him, stomped and punched his head several times while on the ground, put him in a choke hold and took the prison made weapon and stabbed the victim in the forehead. The assault continued and ended with Salazar stepping on Flores’ face with his entire body weight. Video shows Salazar then dancing around the enclosure. In all, investigators determined Flores was stabbed and stomped hundreds of times over the span of 47 minutes.

An autopsy showed the victim suffered a crushed skull, broken ribs and a fractured larynx, among other injuries. The doctor who performed the autopsy noted the victim’s body was in a condition “similar to a person in a motor vehicle accident.”

The aggravating factors in this case included that the murder was especially heinous or especially depraved, a serious prior felony conviction by the defendant, and that the offense occurred in the State Department of Corrections.

Salazar’s serious prior offenses included a Manslaughter from 2000 and a 2007 Attempted Murder of an Arizona Correctional Officer.

This case is the first time a Pinal County jury has imposed the death penalty in more than 20 years.

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(FLORENCE, AZ August 1st, 2023) - A Surprise man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for child sex trafficking and luring an underage girl via a social media app to engage in sexual activity as the victim “needed the money to help her mom pay their rent.”

On July 31, 2023, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Daniel Washburn sentenced Joel Disanto, 47, to 25 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections, followed by lifetime probation.

DiSanto pled guilty to Aggravated Luring of a Minor, a Class Two Felony; and Child Sex Trafficking, a Class Two Felony and Dangerous Crime Against Children.

In October, 2022, the mother of a 15-year-old went through her phone and discovered sexually explicit images of her daughter that were being sent through Snap Chat. The victim’s older sister also searched the victim’s cell phone and found a text message indicating the victim had sex with a male in his 40s. During a forensic interview with the victim, she disclosed that she had met a number of men on Snap Chat who sent her sexually explicit material, and that she had been communicating with a subject by the username ‘Daniel Donkey.’ The victim indicated the person behind the username wanted to meet with her in order to engage in sexual activity, and offered to pay her. According to law enforcement, the victim noted that “she needed the money to help her mom pay their rent.”

The victim disclosed that in September 2022 she met with “Daniel Donkey” in Casa Grande and engaged in a sex act with him after making it clear she was 15 years old.

During the investigation, the Casa Grande Police Department obtained a search warrant for the Snapchat account, which helped to identify the account’s creator as DiSanto. DiSanto’s physical characteristics also matched the description provided by the victim. DiSanto was already listed as a sex offender and a sexually violent predator.

Investigators located sexually explicit material on DiSanto’s Snapchat account. The geolocation of his phone also provided details helping to corroborate the victim’s account.

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