MESA, Ariz. — Mesa police have arrested a man who they suspected shot and killed his spouse at the end of September.
Stephen Joseph Mora, 54, and his wife were married for four years before she filed for separation on Labor Day.
The victim and her children moved in with a friend in Mesa and were keeping their location private from the suspect, police said.
On Sept. 25, Mora showed up at the Mesa home but the victim was not there. No contact was made that day, police said.
On Sept. 26, around 4:35 p.m. Mora reportedly confronted the victim while she was out on a jog. A witness called 911 to report that the victim came up to their car asking for help and telling them Mora had a gun, police said.
The same witness saw Mora shoot the victim and then get into the driver's seat of a silver Mercedes, police said.
A second witness followed the Mercedes as it drove away and claimed that Mora was the only occupant of the car, police said.
Many citizens including some of the witnesses to the crime tried to perform CPR on the victim while waiting for law enforcement to arrive, but she was ultimately pronounced dead at 4:45 p.m.
At around 5 p.m., a man called 911 reporting that his son, Mora, had shot his girlfriend and was threatening suicide. Almost an hour later, Mora called the police department himself and said he had shot his wife and was in the station parking lot planning to commit suicide, police said.
An officer located the Mercedes in the public parking lot and heard a gunshot come from the vehicle. Mora exited the vehicle and was treated immediately for a single gunshot wound to the face area, police said.
Officers found the revolver gun with two fired cartridges and several unused cartridges, police said.
Mora was arrested at the hospital when he was released, police said.
On Sept. 28, the postmortem exam of the victim revealed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the right side which traveled to the left, collapsing a lung, police said.
The victim also suffered internal bleeding related to broken ribs, possibly consistent with being struck by a vehicle, police said.
Mora was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
