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Mesa police arrest married couple as suspects in shooting death
(Mesa Police Department)
Heath Daniel
(Mesa Police Department)
Vanessa Daniel
Posted
INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA
Mesa police have arrested a married couple in connection with the shooting death of a 31-year-old man.
Heath and Vanessa Daniel, ages 33 and 37 respectively, were arrest about 11 p.m. Dec. 30, two days after Jose Olvera Ramirez, 31, was found dead on the road at 260 W. 8th Ave., police said.
Heath Daniel faces a first-degree murder charge, and his wife was arrested for hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, authorities said Monday.
According to police, there were no witnesses and little evidence at the crime scene so detectives used video surveillance cameras in the area for information.
Video from the Circle K on the corner of 8th Avenue and Country Club showed Ramirez “interacting with someone in a white passenger car just 10 minutes before officers were dispatched to the scene,” police said in a release.
The driver of the car was a man wearing a dark hat with the letters “NY” on it, officials said, and the car had damage to the bumper “and was picked up by other surveillance cameras, which ultimately gave officers a license plate, and registered owner, Heath Daniel,” the release stated.
Cellular phone records showed Daniel’s phone in the area of the murder at the time it occurred, police said.
Officers served multiple search warrants for various locations associated with Daniel on Dec. 30. At Daniel’s house, officers found a dark hat with “NY” on it along with an empty gun box for a .45 caliber pistol, police said.
Daniel’s vehicle was found at a relative’s house, where he and his wife “asked them to hold on to it and a box of .45 caliber cartridges.
"Fired and unfired .45 caliber casings were found in and on Daniel’s vehicle.”
Officers said they also learned, at another location, that Daniel said he shot a man and showed a .45 caliber handgun to a witness.
While officers were serving the search warrants, information was obtained that Daniel had left the area in a separate vehicle.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety assisted and found Daniel and his wife traveling on Interstate 10 toward Tucson, police said.
The suspects were brought back to Mesa and booked into jail.
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