Voters: Voyles is prosecutor needed

We are writing this letter in support of Lando Voyles for Pinal Count Attorney. Lando is the right man for the job.

We went through a very trying time in the Pinal County Court system starting in January 2007 due to our son being murdered just outside of Casa Grande in November 2006. The person was apprehended in December 2006 and Pinal County Attorney’s office could not prosecute due to conflict of interest, as many of the people involved in this case were already involved in the court system.

We were very concerned because the defendant had just been put on probation by the Pinal County Attorney’[s office for child molestation, three weeks before our son was killed.

Thankfully, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office took on this case and tried this case in Pinal County. There was not a day that we didn’t thank the Maricopa County Attorney for working hard on our son’s behalf to get justice.

The first trial started in August 2009 and went for three weeks. It seemed like a strong case but it ended, disappointingly, with a hung jury. Fortunately for us, once again, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office sought to retry this individual.

If this would have been tried by a Pinal County prosecutor, we were told, the case would have been dropped.

The second trial started in April 2010 and went for three weeks. Once again the Maricopa County Attorney worked hard to present the case.

Finally the verdict came in guilty on April 9, 2010; two days after what would have been our son’s 22nd birthday. The defendant received natural life in prison without possibility of parole.

The defendant believed he would get off and seemed to be quite shocked with his sentence due to being put on probation for a previous crime (charges of molestation of a child, two counts of sexual conduct of a minor were dismissed under terms of a plea agreement by a Pinal County Attorney.) He had previously been convicted and served 16 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections for robbery.