Charles Reinhardt was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for a brutal murder. According to court documents Charles Reinhardt would murder a man in a drug deal gone wrong. Charles Reinhardt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
Charles Reinhardt 2021 Information
ASPC Florence, Central Unit
PO Box 8200
CHARLES B. RIENHARDT 084033
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
Charles Reinhardt More News
One of Reinhardt’s friends introduced the victim, Michael Ellis, to Reinhardt for the purpose of helping Reinhardt purchase methamphetamine. On September 4, 1995, Charles Reinhardt, a female friend, Ellis, and his male contact person met at Charles Nadeau’s apartment to negotiate the deal. Reinhardt gave the male $1,180 cash so he could get the methamphetamine, and Ellis stayed behind as “collateral”. After several hours when the drugs did not arrive, Reinhardt and Nadeau threatened Ellis with physical injury and demanded either the money or the drugs. Early the next morning, Nadeau and Charles Reinhardt drove Ellis in a Buick to the Reddington Pass area of Pima County, where they beat him in the face, shot him in the shoulder with a shotgun, and beat his head with heavy rocks, which resulted in blood spatters on their clothes. Reinhardt and Nadeau then drove the Buick to a shopping center, where Nadeau tried to start a fire inside the Buick. When a patrol car drove into the area, Charles Reinhardt and Nadeau fled in a friend’s car, which resulted in a high speed chase until the friend’s car was wrecked. After officers apprehended the two, they noticed blood on their clothing. In the Buick at the shopping center, officers found a bloody towel, a shotgun, the victim’s wallet, and charred newspapers. At Nadeau’s apartment, officers saw blood smears near the entry of the apartment and spatters of blood leading out to the parking lot. Nadeau’s friends admitted seeing blood near the entrance and on the interior of the apartment, and on the chair where the victim was last seen sitting.
Charles Reinhardt Other News
On the evening of September 4, 1995, Charles Reinhardt sought to purchase a large quantity of methamphetamines in Tucson. He arranged to meet two men—Michael[669 F.Supp.2d 1045]Ellis, the victim in this case, and James Breedlove—at the apartment of co-defendant Charles Nadeau. Once the deal was made, Petitioner gave Breedlove $1,180 with the understanding that Breedlove would return to the apartment with the drugs. In order to secure Breedlove’s return, the parties agreed that Michael Ellis would remain in the apartment with Petitioner.
Breedlove never returned. As the evening progressed, Charles Reinhardt became increasingly agitated. He threatened Ellis and insisted that Ellis locate Breedlove by telephone. At one point, Petitioner called Breedlove’s girlfriend, Micki Rowlan, and told her that if Breedlove did not return, he would take Ellis on a hike in the desert, blindfold him, hang him over the edge of a cliff, remove the blindfold, and drop him. After midnight, Nadeau arrived at the apartment. For reasons that are unclear, Nadeau struck Ellis across the face hard enough to make him bleed. Eventually, Breedlove phoned the apartment with news that the deal was taking longer than expected. Petitioner told Breedlove that for every 10 minutes that Breedlove did not return, Petitioner would hurt Ellis further.
Charles Reinhardt and Nadeau eventually left the apartment with Ellis. When two witnesses returned to the apartment, they discovered a trail of blood leading from the apartment, blood on the living room carpet and on a chair where Ellis had been seated, and pieces of teeth on the floor. They also discovered a shotgun on a couch near Ellis’s chair.
Later that evening, Petitioner contacted Christina George, his girlfriend, and told her to meet him at a Circle K market near Reddington Pass because there was an emergency and he needed a ride. George drove to the appointed spot in a stolen Toyota MR-2, waited for some time, and then decided to drive up Reddington Pass to a place where she and Petitioner had recently been jumping off of rocks. Less than a mile up the dirt road, she encountered Petitioner and Nadeau on foot. Petitioner told her that their vehicle had gotten stuck on a rock. He also told her that Ellis had not died from his shotgun wounds, that they had dropped a rock on his head, and that, “I have brains all over my pants.”
The group dislodged the vehicle, a white Buick, and drove both cars to a nearby shopping plaza. They decided to burn the Buick. As George and Nadeau prepared to burn the car, a sheriff’s deputy approached the group. The three jumped into the stolen Toyota, a chase ensued, and the three were arrested. The Buick, left at the shopping plaza, had blood smeared on the driver’s side, a bloody towel inside, and a large blood stain in the back seat. Police found Michael Ellis’s wallet in the Buick, and a shotgun with a missing stock.
The next night, Nadeau led police to Ellis’s body near the dirt road leading to Reddington Pass. Ellis had been severely beaten about the head and torso. He had shotgun wounds. One or two large rocks had been dropped on his head. Pieces of a wood shotgun stock were found around a pool of blood near the body. The pieces matched the make and model of the shotgun found in the abandoned Buick.
Nadeau’s trial on the above charges was severed from Petitioner’s. Christina George was charged with attempted arson and hindering prosecution. She also faced unrelated felony charges. George entered into a plea agreement in return for her testimony against Petitioner.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael D. Alfred sentenced Petitioner to death for the first degree murder and to a term of imprisonment for the other counts. With respect to the murder count, the judge found three aggravating circumstances:
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