Arizona
Suspect indicted in death of man who was killed and dismembered in national forest
PHOENIX (AP) — A suspect has been indicted in the death of an 18-year-old Nebraska man who was stabbed, dismembered and burned beyond recognition in a remote area of an Arizona national forest last year, according to authorities.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced Friday that 38-year-old Anthonie Ruinard Jr. has been charged with felony counts of second-degree murder and abandonment or concealment of a dead body.
Ruinard, from Chandler, originally was arrested in the case last July and charged with first-degree murder and other counts.
“Experienced homicide prosecutors in my office combed through nearly 4,000 pages of material submitted in this homicide case,” Mitchell said in a statement. “After five months of careful review, we were able to secure this indictment.”
A message sent to Ruinard’s public defender seeking comment on the case wasn’t immediately returned Sunday.
Authorities said the body of Parker League was found in June at the bottom of a bonfire in the Tonto National Forest just northeast of the Phoenix metro area, and dental records identified the victim.
League’s family said he had just graduated from high school in Gretna, Nebraska, and took a June 9 flight to Arizona to visit friends for a few days.
Authorities said surveillance footage showed League and Ruinard leaving a gas station together on June 11. That was the last time League was seen on video alive.
League’s body was found the following day and authorities said his blood was later discovered in the trunk and on the rear bumper of a vehicle seized from Ruinard’s property.
Sheriff’s investigators used surveillance video from multiple locations where League’s credit and debit cards were used to identify Ruinard as a suspect.
Ruinard, a former Tucson restaurant owner, told investigators that League sold him debit cards for $500 and he threw them away after using them, according to court documents.
But records also show that Ruinard admitted to using cocaine and marijuana before meeting League and that may have blurred his memory.
California
A convicted con artist pleads guilty in an $18M cannabis scam
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A convicted California con artist has pleaded guilty in another scam, admitting that he swindled investors out of more than $18 million by concocting phony cannabis businesses shortly after being released from prison in a prior criminal case, federal prosecutors said.
Mark Roy Anderson, 69, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of wire fraud after investigators said he lured his victims with false claims that he ran companies that invested in hemp farms and cannabis-infused retail products, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He launched his sham marijuana businesses, including one called Harvest Farm Group, immediately after his May 2019 release from a Texas prison where he had served more than 11 years for an oil investment scam, officials said.
“Anderson attempted to maintain a veneer of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure investors Harvest Farm Group was legitimate and he was not the ‘Mark Roy Anderson’ with multiple prior fraud convictions,” the statement says.
“Anderson concealed that he had been convicted of multiple federal and state felony crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence, and money laundering.”
The FBI said Anderson persuaded people to invest by falsely representing that he owned and operated a hemp farm in Kern County, California. He also lied that he had already completed successful and profitable harvests of hemp from the farm, which the FBI said did not exist.
As part of a plea agreement, Anderson has agreed to forfeit his ill-gotten gains from the schemes, including a $1.3 million gated home in Ojai, California, and 15 cars, including a Ferrari, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
Anderson, a disbarred lawyer from Beverly Hills, has a court hearing set for Aug. 23. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count.
New Jersey
More than 100 dogs rescued, eight arrested in suspected dogfighting operation
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — More than 100 dogs were rescued and eight people were arrested in an investigation of a suspected dogfighting operation in southern New Jersey, authorities said.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin and state police said Friday that search warrants were executed Wednesday in Cumberland and Atlantic counties related to the suspected Cumberland County operation, which he said was believed to be the largest ever charged in the state.
Platkin called dogfighting a “cruel and barbaric practice” and alleged that animals found were “often tortured and abused to an unimaginable degree.” One method used to prepare animals “to fight to their deaths” involved strapping them to ATVs and forcing them “to run at speeds as high as 14 miles an hour, often for long periods of time,” he said.
The Humane Society said officers working all day in the pouring rain found dogs and puppies in barren pens and cages or “shivering in the cold rain” in outdoor pens. Some dogs had significant scarring and untreated wounds, officials said.
Bruce Low Jr., 44, of Milmay faces 18 charges including racketeering, conspiracy, money-laundering and leading a dogfighting network. A message was sent Saturday to an attorney that BreakingAC reports represented him in an initial court appearance. Seven other people also face charges; also named were a construction firm and a dog-breeding firm that on its website strongly denies condoning use of animals for any illegal purpose such as dogfighting.
Authorities allege in criminal affidavits that Low earned “a significant amount of income” from dogfighting as well as sale of fighting dogs, stud fees and gambling winnings. Investigators allege that he told an undercover agent in February that he had 61 “concerts” or dogfights in the past year.
Suspect indicted in death of man who was killed and dismembered in national forest
PHOENIX (AP) — A suspect has been indicted in the death of an 18-year-old Nebraska man who was stabbed, dismembered and burned beyond recognition in a remote area of an Arizona national forest last year, according to authorities.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced Friday that 38-year-old Anthonie Ruinard Jr. has been charged with felony counts of second-degree murder and abandonment or concealment of a dead body.
Ruinard, from Chandler, originally was arrested in the case last July and charged with first-degree murder and other counts.
“Experienced homicide prosecutors in my office combed through nearly 4,000 pages of material submitted in this homicide case,” Mitchell said in a statement. “After five months of careful review, we were able to secure this indictment.”
A message sent to Ruinard’s public defender seeking comment on the case wasn’t immediately returned Sunday.
Authorities said the body of Parker League was found in June at the bottom of a bonfire in the Tonto National Forest just northeast of the Phoenix metro area, and dental records identified the victim.
League’s family said he had just graduated from high school in Gretna, Nebraska, and took a June 9 flight to Arizona to visit friends for a few days.
Authorities said surveillance footage showed League and Ruinard leaving a gas station together on June 11. That was the last time League was seen on video alive.
League’s body was found the following day and authorities said his blood was later discovered in the trunk and on the rear bumper of a vehicle seized from Ruinard’s property.
Sheriff’s investigators used surveillance video from multiple locations where League’s credit and debit cards were used to identify Ruinard as a suspect.
Ruinard, a former Tucson restaurant owner, told investigators that League sold him debit cards for $500 and he threw them away after using them, according to court documents.
But records also show that Ruinard admitted to using cocaine and marijuana before meeting League and that may have blurred his memory.
California
A convicted con artist pleads guilty in an $18M cannabis scam
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A convicted California con artist has pleaded guilty in another scam, admitting that he swindled investors out of more than $18 million by concocting phony cannabis businesses shortly after being released from prison in a prior criminal case, federal prosecutors said.
Mark Roy Anderson, 69, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of wire fraud after investigators said he lured his victims with false claims that he ran companies that invested in hemp farms and cannabis-infused retail products, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He launched his sham marijuana businesses, including one called Harvest Farm Group, immediately after his May 2019 release from a Texas prison where he had served more than 11 years for an oil investment scam, officials said.
“Anderson attempted to maintain a veneer of trustworthiness by taking steps to assure investors Harvest Farm Group was legitimate and he was not the ‘Mark Roy Anderson’ with multiple prior fraud convictions,” the statement says.
“Anderson concealed that he had been convicted of multiple federal and state felony crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, grand theft, forgery, preparing false evidence, and money laundering.”
The FBI said Anderson persuaded people to invest by falsely representing that he owned and operated a hemp farm in Kern County, California. He also lied that he had already completed successful and profitable harvests of hemp from the farm, which the FBI said did not exist.
As part of a plea agreement, Anderson has agreed to forfeit his ill-gotten gains from the schemes, including a $1.3 million gated home in Ojai, California, and 15 cars, including a Ferrari, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
Anderson, a disbarred lawyer from Beverly Hills, has a court hearing set for Aug. 23. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count.
New Jersey
More than 100 dogs rescued, eight arrested in suspected dogfighting operation
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — More than 100 dogs were rescued and eight people were arrested in an investigation of a suspected dogfighting operation in southern New Jersey, authorities said.
Attorney General Matthew Platkin and state police said Friday that search warrants were executed Wednesday in Cumberland and Atlantic counties related to the suspected Cumberland County operation, which he said was believed to be the largest ever charged in the state.
Platkin called dogfighting a “cruel and barbaric practice” and alleged that animals found were “often tortured and abused to an unimaginable degree.” One method used to prepare animals “to fight to their deaths” involved strapping them to ATVs and forcing them “to run at speeds as high as 14 miles an hour, often for long periods of time,” he said.
The Humane Society said officers working all day in the pouring rain found dogs and puppies in barren pens and cages or “shivering in the cold rain” in outdoor pens. Some dogs had significant scarring and untreated wounds, officials said.
Bruce Low Jr., 44, of Milmay faces 18 charges including racketeering, conspiracy, money-laundering and leading a dogfighting network. A message was sent Saturday to an attorney that BreakingAC reports represented him in an initial court appearance. Seven other people also face charges; also named were a construction firm and a dog-breeding firm that on its website strongly denies condoning use of animals for any illegal purpose such as dogfighting.
Authorities allege in criminal affidavits that Low earned “a significant amount of income” from dogfighting as well as sale of fighting dogs, stud fees and gambling winnings. Investigators allege that he told an undercover agent in February that he had 61 “concerts” or dogfights in the past year.
