2022 Year in Review, Part 1: January-April

Santa Cruz County saw a post-holiday surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases, with the number of new infections among local residents jumping from 133 during the week ending Dec. 30, to 412 during the following seven days. The numbers continued to climb, reaching a single-day record of 288 new positive cases on Jan. 18.

Meanwhile, as the county’s residents and health professionals tried to identify and respond to new infections, they were hamstrung by a shortage of COVID-19 tests, as well as delays in receiving the results from labs overwhelmed with submissions.

By the end of the month, the County Health Services Department had added 5,219 confirmed COVID-19 cases to its tallies in January – 670 more than it logged during the entire 2021 calendar year.

The dramatic increase in coronavirus infections coincided with the arrival of the highly infectious omicron variant of the disease. However, while omicron is highly contagious and can cause serious illness and death, its effects were less severe than other variants like delta, especially among those who have been vaccinated. Amid the surge of new cases, local health officials reported six new deaths and 36 hospitalizations related to COVID-19 during January. That compared to 10 deaths and 37 hospitalizations added to the county’s dashboard in December.

Jan. 11: NPD responds to report of shots fired, find one person dead

The Nogales Police Department received a call shortly after 4 a.m. on Jan. 11 from someone reporting shots fired on the 900 Block of Grand Avenue.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found a male in a motel room with obvious signs of trauma. “Officers checked on the male and it was determined that the male succumbed to his injuries and was deceased,” NPD said in a news release.

The victim was later identified as Jose Francisco Haro, 43, of Nogales. There were no arrests made in the immediate aftermath of his death, though it was later revealed 43-year-old Gustavo Aguilar Chavez was identified as a suspect and put under surveillance.

Jan. 13: Homicide suspect shot after firing at Nogales police

Gustavo Aguilar Chavez, a suspect in the death of Jose Francisco Haro at a Nogales motel, was shot and taken into custody after opening fire on police in a downtown neighborhood.

Police Chief Roy Bermudez told the NI that slightly before 10 a.m. that day, Aguilar realized he was being tailed and fled in a vehicle that he ultimately abandoned in the area of Dumbauld Street, firing a handgun at police as he ran off.

Officers chased Aguilar to the back yard of a residence on Court Street as he allegedly continued to fire at police, until he himself was shot. No officers were injured, but Aguilar was flown to a Tucson hospital, treated and booked into the county jail 12 hours later.

Jan. 16: Police say two in critical condition after shooting in Nogales

The Nogales Police Department received a report of shots being fired around 11:30 p.m. Upon arriving at the 2800 block of N. Grand Avenue, officers discovered two men with gunshot wounds, and both were flown to Tucson for medical treatment.

One of the two people, 46-year-old Jeffrey David Boyer, later pleaded “guilty except insane” to attempted second-degree murder. On Dec. 19, he was sentenced to 10.5 years in a state mental hospital.

Jan. 22: Port of entry vaccination requirement begins for ‘essential’ travelers

U.S. visa holders crossing through the land ports of entry from Mexico for work, medical or educational purposes – aka “essential” travel – were never subject to the restrictions that kept other visa holders from crossing between March 21, 2020 and Nov. 8, 2021.

But starting at 12 a.m. on Jan. 22, those travelers were required to prove that they had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 – the same requirement that U.S. Customs and Border Protection imposed on people engaged in “non-essential” travel when they were allowed to begin crossing through the land ports again in November.

Jan. 19: Tubac fire station plan stalls after land sale fizzles

The Tubac Fire District Governing Board met to discuss purchasing land on the corner of the I-19 East Frontage Road and Bridge Road to host a new Station No. 1, but emerged from executive session with no action after the seller withdrew the property from consideration.

Board members did not cite a reason for the seller’s withdrawal. 

Jan. 27: Feds charge one, implicate two others in alleged bribery scheme

Federal law enforcement arrested Nogales-based business consultant Luis Manuel Flores on charges that he facilitated a $2,000 bribe paid to a Santa Cruz County official in exchange for “fixing” a property owner’s tax bill.

Flores, 62, was released the day after his arrest on his own recognizance.

One alleged co-conspirator, identified in the complaint filed against Flores only as Person A, owned two warehouses with a large cement parcel between them. The other, identified in the complaint only as Public Official 1, was described as “an elected official and agent of Santa Cruz County with authority over property valuations for purposes of assessing taxes.”

Jan. 28: Long-awaited repairs begin on cross-border sewage line

After years of neglect, sewage spills and foul stenches, repairs are finally beginning on the faltering pipeline that carries approximately 12 million gallons of wastewater each day from the U.S.-Mexico border to a treatment plant in Rio Rico.

Representatives of the federal, state and local entities that had long been at loggerheads over the pipeline’s repair gathered near the northern terminus of the nine-mile-long conduit known as the International Outfall Interceptor, or IOI. They heralded the start of the first three phases of a five-phase process that, rather than replacing the IOI, would seek to shore it up with a slip line inserted inside.

Jan. 29-30: Buffalo Soldiers commemorated in Nogales

Descendants, researchers and enthusiasts gathered to commemorate the Buffalo Soldiers – segregated units of Black troops – who were stationed in Nogales from 1910 to 1933 at the former Camp Little U.S. Army base.

The effort was spearheaded by Donna Jackson-Houston, who founded the Nogales Buffalo Soldiers Legacy Association in 2021 after discovering her grandfather Lucius Jackson had served as a Buffalo Soldier.

Among other duties, the soldiers stationed in Nogales participated in a conflict that would alter life along the U.S-Mexico border: the Battle of Ambos Nogales in August 1918. But they were also community members who left a lasting legacy in the city.

“What makes the story more important,” historian Anthony Powell said, “is that it has relevance today, as it did a hundred years ago.”

Feb. 2: Nonprofit gives up facility meant for children’s museum

The nonprofit organization behind a long-anticipated children’s museum in Nogales decided to give up its possession of the former clubhouse at the city’s defunct Palo Duro Country Club, said Nogales City Attorney Michael Massee during a city council meeting.

“They’re basically tendering the possession of the building back to the city,” Massee explained, adding: “It was, you know, a vision that hasn’t come through.”

The announcement came after a years-long wait for the Santa Cruz Children’s Museum. A key player in the museum’s conception – property owner Dino Panousopoulos – did not respond to the NI’s requests for comment.

Feb. 7: Wave of COVID-19 infections diminishes rapidly

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County showed a significant decline during the first week of February, according to data from the County Health Services Department.

The department added 505 new cases to its tallies during the seven days leading up to Feb. 7 – an average of 72.1 per day. That was down from 1,375 cases (196.4 per day) during the week ending Monday, Jan. 31, and 1,698 cases (242.6 per day) during the week ending Jan. 24.

The trend continued, and by the last week of the month, the health department reported a seven-day total of only 36 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 – an average of a little more than five per day. With the number of new infections decreasing so dramatically, Santa Cruz was, as of Feb. 28, one of four counties in Arizona where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said healthy people could consider going without masks in public indoor settings.

Feb. 9: AG settles overtime lawsuit against former sheriff

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office quietly settled a lawsuit against former Sheriff Antonio Estrada and his second-in-command over unworked overtime paid to Sheriff’s Office employees, collecting only a fraction of the allegedly misappropriated money in the process.

The lawsuit originally filed in June 2021 by the office of Attorney General Mark Brnovich had sought to recover not only the $196,842 that the Arizona Auditor General said was paid out under the scheme from 2013 to 2018, but also asked for triple damages under provisions of the Arizona Racketeering Act. That could have put Estrada and former Capt. Ruben Fuentes on the hook for nearly $600,000 in restitution and penalties, The Associated Press reported at the time.

But according to the settlement agreement filed at Maricopa County Superior Court, Brnovich agreed to drop the suit in exchange for a joint payment from Estrada and Fuentes of just $10,000.

Estrada’s lawyer, Douglas Clark, said he thought the case “turned out very well for the (former) sheriff,” adding that he didn’t think the suit “ever should have been done.”

Feb. 11: Local fifth-grader is county spelling bee champ

When tasked with spelling “montmorency” in front of a crowd at the VFW Hall in Nogales, Angelina Coil seemed unfazed.

The fifth-grade student at Sonshine Christian School spelled the word without a pause, clinching first place at the 2022 Santa Cruz County Spelling Bee.

Coil had certainly studied, and, she said, she enjoys writing. But still, she added, “I was amazed” to snag the victory.

Miguel Valenzuela, a sixth-grader at Wade Carpenter Middle School, was the runner-up after a back-and-forth with Coil for several rounds.

Feb. 14: Police procession brings sheriff’s deputy back home

Law enforcement officers, loved ones and community members gathered to pay their respects as the body of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy Guillermo Vasquez, Jr. was returned to Nogales from Mexico, where he died of reportedly natural causes on Feb. 10 at the age of 30.

The procession traveled two-and-a-half miles from the Mariposa Port of Entry to Martinez Funeral Chapels, where officers from agencies including the Nogales Police Department, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection joined their counterparts from the Sheriff’s Office in saluting Vasquez outside the bay where the hearse came to a stop.

Speaking outside the funeral home, Sheriff David Hathaway described Vasquez as a “fantastic, humble young man cut down in the prime of life,” and an “optimistic, upbeat guy; always friendly, always smiling.”

Feb. 19: Rio Rico High School wrestler wins state championship

Competing in front of a large crowd at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Jesse James Octavio-Callejo of Rio Rico High School pinned his opponent from Yuma High School in the second period of their Division III title match to earn the state wrestling championship in the 285-pound weight class.

The victory capped off three days of state-level competition for the 17-year-old junior, and earned him a hero’s welcome from his friends in the RRHS community when he returned to town later that night.

“I was nervous, having to wrestle in front of all those people. But when I won, it was like the most joyful thing in the world,” Octavio-Callejo said.

Feb. 24: Mayor and council interview two city manager finalists

The Nogales mayor and council narrowed their search for a new city manager to two candidates, whom they interviewed in person at City Hall on Feb. 24.

The two finalists were Edward Dickie, town manager of Dewey-Humboldt in Yavapai County, and Gerald Flannery, CEO/general manager of the Highlands Ranch (Colo.) Community Association.

Dickie and Flannery, along with Robert “Fritz” VanVolkenburgh, chief of staff to a county commissioner in Brevard County, Fla., were interviewed via video the week prior.

The City of Nogales had been seeking a chief administrator since the council and former manager Edward Johnson agreed to part ways in May 2020.

March 11: SR-189 ramps unveiled to improve cross-border traffic

Local and state officials gathered amid the roar of traffic to unveil a construction project that had been two years in the making – an overhaul of State Route 189, also known as Mariposa Road. 

The $134 million endeavor reached a major milestone when two flyover ramps opened to traffic at the intersection of Interstate 19 and SR-189. 

The newly opened flyover ramps provide a direct passageway between Mariposa Road and I-19. Local and state officials say that will alleviate some of the area traffic, allowing trucks to make a more streamlined route to produce warehouses.

March 11: Man who died in Nogales in 2016 identified as killer in Washington cold case

Police in Washington state announced that they had identified Douglas Keith Krohne, a man who died of accidental electrocution in Nogales in 2016, as the perpetrator in a 26-year-old homicide.

In a news release, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said forensic genome sequencing and forensic genealogy had led them to conclude that Krohne was the killer of 61-year-old Patricia Barnes. Her body was found on Aug. 25, 1995, after she was shot twice in the head and left naked on the side of a roadway.

Krohne, who was living in Washington at the time, eventually made his way to Nogales. On Sept. 30, 2016, Krohne died after he tried to prop up a tall metal pole in the Bird Hill Mobile Home Park, possibly for use as a television antenna, and made contact with a power line, Nogales police said at the time.

March 14: NUSD makes face mask use optional two weeks after county ends mandate

The Nogales Unified School District returned from spring break with a new policy in place regarding face masks.

In a message sent to the NUSD community late the previous week, Superintendent Fernando Parra announced that masks would now be optional at school, on school buses and at school events.

On March 1, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors signed a resolution on rescinding a mask mandate in all county-owned buildings.

The changes in policy came as the number of new confirmed COVID-19 infections among local residents fell to an average of approximately one per day.

March 17: Man who murdered Rio Rico woman on I-19 gets 34 years prison

A California man was sentenced to 34 years in prison in the 2019 shooting death of a woman from Santa Cruz County on Interstate 19 in Green Valley.

Mateo D. Zavala pleaded guilty in January to the second-degree murder of 25-year-old Marilynn P. Pacheco, as well as to charges of domestic violence and aggravated assault, and was later sentenced at Pima County Superior Court.

Motorists started calling 911 around 5 p.m. on June 29, 2019, to report the driver of a Jeep Cherokee – Zavala – was shooting at a red sedan on northbound Interstate 19. Pacheco, who was in the front passenger seat, was killed, and the man driving the sedan escaped on foot with his 3-year-old daughter. According to family members, Zavala and Pacheco had been involved in a tumultuous relationship. 

March 23: Parents charged in death of 3-month-old baby

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said it had arrested both parents of a deceased 3-month-old baby.

The baby’s father, 31-year-old Fredi Calderon of Rio Rico, was arrested Tuesday and booked in the county jail on charges of first-degree murder and child abuse, Sheriff David Hathaway said in a news release. Calderon’s bond was set at $1 million.

The mother, 30-year-old Fantasia Chambers of Rio Rico, was booked into the jail on child abuse charges with bond set at $500,000.

The two were still in custody, with their cases awaiting resolution at Santa Cruz County Superior Court, as of December.

March 26: Sister cities, Suns team up for binational basketball camp

Nearly 250 children from both sides of the border took part in a Phoenix Suns basketball camp at the Nogales Parks and Recreation Department gymnasium.

The camp was offered as part of a newly updated sister cities agreement between the governments of Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Ariz. that was signed on March 3 at City Hall. The sports-centered pact called for events for Ambos Nogales youth on a monthly basis, in hopes of giving them opportunities for physical activity that had been lacking during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the basketball camp on March 26, participating children from Mexico were granted U.S. humanitarian visas that allowed them to cross the border for the event.

April 4: Two candidates meet deadline to run for mayor of Nogales

Arturo Garino, the current Nogales mayor, and Jorge Maldonado, a former councilman, were the only two mayoral candidates to file nomination petitions in time to have their names listed on the 2022 ballot. (A third write-in candidate, Peter Lella, emerged later in the campaign.)

Meanwhile, seven people met the April 4 deadline to get their names on the ballot in the race for three available seats on the Nogales City Council.

Three were incumbents seeking re-election: Hector Bojorquez, Esther Melendez-Lopez and Jose “Joe” Diaz. The other four were Jose “Joe” Agosttini, a retired U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer; John Doyle, a former city councilman and mayor; political newcomer Vicente I. Gonzalez; and Miguel Angel “Mike” Melendez, a local businessman.

The primary election was scheduled for Aug. 2 and the general election for Nov. 8.

April 6: City appoints manager after lengthy search

The Nogales City Council unanimously approved a contract for new City Manager Edward Dickie during a public meeting.

The city has been without a permanent manager since Edward Johnson’s departure from the post in May 2020. Nearly two years and multiple interviews later, council members narrowed their search down to Dickie, who had been serving as the town manager of Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz.

His contract called for him to start at a salary of $145,000, which would go up to $150,000 after a year on the job. He was also promised a one-time payment of $3,500 for relocation expenses.

Starting in March 2021, the city worked with California-based consultant CPS HR to assist in the search process. But when the company presented the mayor and council with 11 permanent manager candidates in fall 2021, they honed in on one finalist who ultimately didn’t take the job.

After restarting the search, a representative of CPS HR told the council in January 2022 that no recent applicants were qualified for the position. The company expressed plans to widen its search bracket, and by Feb. 2, CPS HR announced it had collected more than two dozen new applications.

Later in February, the council interviewed Dickie, along with two candidates based in Florida and Colorado, respectively. Dickie progressed to a second interview round and was ultimately appointed.

April 6: Maldonado steps down, Gradillas takes his place

After Jorge Maldonado resigned from the Nogales City Council to run for mayor, the city’s six remaining councilmembers swiftly and unanimously appointed Octavio Gradillas, Jr. to fill the position in a move that appeared to have been settled prior to the public meeting.

While proposing the appointment, Mayor Arturo Garino said Gradillas “has accepted to be a council member.” Moments later, he made a motion to appoint Gradillas and the council voted unanimously in favor with no discussion.

Under state law, Gradillas will serve on the council for the remainder of Maldonado’s four-year term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2024.

Gradillas, a former police officer, had recently been working as a real estate agent and serving on the City of Nogales Board of Adjustments.

April 13: After lengthy debate, county supervisors approve South32 land donation

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a much-discussed and debated land donation from South32, a mining company pursuing a large-scale project in the Patagonia Mountains.

Under the deal, South32 agreed to donate a 134-acre parcel of land to Santa Cruz County. With the donation, however, the company sought an easement to build a road across the land parcel, running through the Cross Creek area northeast of Patagonia.

Before approving the measure, the board heard more than an hour of comments from residents, who strongly urged the supervisors to delay their decision and ask more questions about the nature of the donation.

The donation proposal first came to light in January as a vaguely worded agenda item that led some to believe the county was planning to donate land to South32. The pushback from that episode led to board to delay a vote.

The supervisors then held two study sessions – one on March 30, and another on April 5 – in which some residents showed support for the mine for its financial investment into the community, while many others expressed opposition.

April 19: County hires outside attorney to prosecute major cases

With several high-profile criminal cases in the works for the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office, the county opted to outsource the prosecution of the cases, hiring Susie Charbel, a Phoenix-based lawyer who previously served as deputy attorney for Maricopa County, to do the job.

County Attorney George Silva told the NI the move was necessitated by a lapse in available personnel at his office. “We got hit with a bunch of cases in a very short period of time. And we just did not have the personnel in the office to handle them,” Silva said. “So we’re doing the next best thing to keep these cases moving.”

The county agreed to pay Charbel a flat rate of $20,000 to prosecute the cases against Fredi Calderon and Fantasia Chambers, a Rio Rico couple charged in the death of their 3-month-old baby. For Arizona v. Lowell Robinson, a case involving a rancher who fired a gun in the direction of a sheriff’s deputy, she was to be paid $8,000.

Additionally, the county agreed to pay Charbel $160 per day for food and lodging expenses.

April 22: Fuentes pleads guilty in bribery conspiracy

Former County Assessor Felipe Fuentes pleaded guilty to participating in a long-running bribery scheme in which he reportedly accepted thousands of dollars of cash and other gifts. In exchange, he allegedly used his office to give favorable treatment to a local property owner matching the profile of Dino Panousopoulos.

Panousopoulos himself was not charged in the case. But a local consultant who allegedly acted as middleman in the scheme, Luis Manuel Flores, was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 20 on seven criminal counts.

Fuentes, 62, who stepped down as assessor in 2020, avoided being indicted when he pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to a charging document filed against him, between approximately June 2019 and March 2020, Fuentes received “thousands of dollars in cash payments” from Person A. In return, Fuentes allegedly assisted Person A by altering, or offering to alter, the values of several land parcels belonging to Person A in the county.

According to the indictment, Flores helped orchestrate the illicit payments. In some cases, the document alleges, he physically handed Fuentes thousands of dollars in cash. Grainy photographic images and transcriptions of presumably surreptitious recordings were included as purported evidence.

The document spelling out the charge against Fuentes alleges a much longer period of criminality, “beginning from a time unknown,” but starting in at least 2007.

April 23: Mingus’ 100th birthday marked with celebration of music, history in Nogales

Jazz aficionados and musicians from as near and far as Nogales, Rio Rico, Kansas City and New York gathered in Nogales.

They came to honor the 100-year anniversary of the jazz giant’s birth in Nogales, and to dedicate a memorial to Mingus that also pays tribute to other Black Americans who enriched the local community.

Mingus Memorial Park stands near the former entrance to Camp Little, where the all-Black “Buffalo Soldiers” of the 10th Cavalry Regiment – including Mingus’ father, an Army sergeant – were stationed from 1910 to 1933. The Mingus Centennial Jazz Celebration kicked off with a ribbon-cutting at the park, a decade-long project at the corner of Western Avenue and Bejarano Street.

Mingus’ son Eric Mingus was on hand for the dedication, making his first visit to his father’s birthplace.

The ceremony was followed by an afternoon-long concert featuring the Nogales and Rio Rico high school jazz bands, as well as the NHS Alumni Jazz Band, the Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra, Alan Lewine’s AZ Xtet and Mingus Dynasty Quintet.