PHOENIX — For the first time, in a newly filed court record, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office is laying out eight East Valley teen violence cases they say may be related to the murder of Preston Lord.
The document, which only lists adult cases, states eight criminal cases involving 16 different suspects are related.
It was discussed in a hearing Thursday morning for the seven suspects accused of killing Preston Lord, 16, back in October outside of a Queen Creek Halloween house party.
“We just got an email from the county attorney last night talking about disclosures on I believe it would be seven other separate cases," said Jason Gronski, the attorney representing Talyn Vigil.
7 other adult cases 'related' to Lord murder case
12News obtained records laying out the seven other cases.
- November 22, 2022: An aggravated assault involving suspects William Hines and Tyler Freeman.
- December 2, 2022: An aggravated assault involving suspects William Hines, Tyler Freeman and Jacob Pennington.
- December 3, 2022: An aggravated assault involving suspects Jack Woods, Gage Garrison and Kyler Renner. Renner is the brother of Lord murder suspect Talan Renner.
- December 16, 2022: An aggravated assault involving suspect Noah Pennington
- December 17, 2022: An aggravated assault involving suspects Gage Garrison and Cody Kostoryz
- May 29, 2023: An aggravated assault involving suspect Christopher Fantastic
- August 18, 2023: An aggravated assault involving suspects Christopher Fantastic and Aris Arrendondo
- October 28, 2023: The murder of Preston Lord involving suspects Talan Renner, William Hines, Dominic Turner, Talyn Vigil, Taylor Sherman, Treston Billey and Jacob Meisner.
“Because there is some association with the information that was disclosed and tied to this particular case, we wanted to make sure that that information was available in case it may include information that is exculpatory or inculpatory for their clients," said a prosecutor in court Thursday.
The court document states there are instances where information or videos from one case may be relevant to another so the county attorney's office is working to set up a system to allow attorneys in all eight of these adult cases to access each other's evidence and information.
The document's filing comes one week after Gilbert PD announced the official designation of the "Gilbert Goons" as a hybrid gang, though members in active cases are not facing gang charges. Police would not comment on who they have identified as members.
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