Sun, Jul 05, 2009
South Tucson police Sgt. E.W. Cajas puts Robert A. Pasmino into a patrol car following the theft of a bag containing $200 and phone cards.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

Tucson Region

Law and Order

Little Caesar's workers help cops nab suspect

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.14.2009
When Little Caesar's employees saw a man bolt out of a neighboring business Tuesday morning with a bank bag in hand, they sprang into action.
The employees chased the man, identified as Robert A. Pasmino, as he fled from Yoly's Music Shop at 2980 S. Sixth Ave., down the Interstate 10 frontage road to South Fourth Avenue, where police took over.
Officers ran after Pasmino, 50, jumping walls before reaching him, said Sgt. Richard Munoz, a South Tucson Police Department spokesman.
Pasmino didn't comply with officers' demands and was shot with a stun gun.
He faces charges of theft, resisting arrest and providing false information to law enforcement, Munoz said. Pasmino also was wanted by authorities for a parole violation.
The manager of the music shop told police that a man came in, walked behind the counter and grabbed the bag.
No injuries were reported.
4-year term for man with hidden cocaine
A man who tried to transport cocaine by hiding it in the roof of a vehicle was sentenced Monday to more than four years in federal prison.
Samuel Esquer-Dominguez, 44, was taken into custody last July when he stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Yuma, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
As a Border Patrol agent spoke with Esquer-Dominguez, the agent noticed that the interior roof was abnormally low, the release said.
Upon searching the vehicle, the agent found a false compartment containing 17 wrapped bundles of cocaine, weighing about 40 pounds.
In October, Esquer-Dominguez — a Mexican citizen — pleaded guilty to a violation of importation of a controlled substance.
Ina-Thornydale drill simulates tanker spill
Personnel from four area fire districts will take part in an emergency response drill Thursday near West Ina and North Thornydale roads.
The fire districts will simulate an emergency response to an overturned gas tanker from 9 a.m. to noon on Regency Plaza Street, according to a press release from the Northwest Fire District.
Regency Plaza Street will be closed from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Ina Road to about a quarter-mile west of Thornydale Road.
All businesses will remain open and accessible.
An actual tanker will be on its side, but no hazardous materials will be released, the press release stated.
The districts make up the Pima Regional Hazardous Materials Team, which consists of the Northwest, Golder Ranch, Drexel Heights and Green Valley fire districts.
Man held for re-entry gets 14 years in riot
An inmate who assaulted a corrections officer during a riot in 2005 was sentenced Monday to 14 years in federal prison.
Jesus Manuel Cazares-Salas pleaded guilty to assault on a federal officer for an incident that occurred Nov. 27, 2005, at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson.
At the time of the riot, Cazares-Salas, of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, was serving a sentence for re-entry after deportation, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
He was a member of a prison gang that got into a fight with American Indian prisoners, the release said.
As corrections officers tried to break up the fight, they were stabbed with shanks and hit with various objects.
Cazares-Salas hit a corrections officer in the face with a telephone, breaking the officer's nose.
Two other inmates are awaiting trial for the same riot.