Charles Rienhardt was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of Michael Ellis
According to court documents Charles Rienhardt arranged with Michael Ellis to buy a large sum of drugs. However when the meet occurred the drugs were not there. Rienhardt would bring Michael Ellis to a remote location where he would be beaten and fatally shot
Charles Rienhardt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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CHARLES B. RIENHARDT 084033
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
Charles Rienhardt Case
On the evening of September 4, 1995, Rienhardt sought to purchase a large quantity of methamphetamines in Tucson. He arranged to meet two men at a friend’s apartment, Michael Ellis, the victim in this case, and James Breedlove. Once the deal was made, Rienhardt gave Breedlove $1,180 with the understanding that Breedlove would return to the apartment with the drugs. In order to secure the return of Breedlove, the parties agreed that Michael Ellis would remain in the apartment with Rienhardt.
Breedlove never came back. As the evening progressed, Rienhardt became increasingly agitated. He threatened Ellis, and insisted that Ellis locate Breedlove by telephone. At one point, Rienhardt told Breedlove’s girlfriend, over the phone, 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, Charles Nadeau, a friend of Rienhardt’s, arrived at the apartment. For reasons that are not clear, Nadeau struck Ellis across the face hard enough to make him bleed. At one point, Breedlove phoned the apartment with news that the deal was taking longer than expected. Rienhardt told Breedlove that for every ten minutes that Breedlove did not return, Rienhardt would hurt Ellis some more.
Rienhardt 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, blood on Ellis’s chair, and pieces of teeth on the floor. They also discovered a shotgun on a couch near where Ellis had been seated.
Later that evening, Charles Rienhardt 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 Rienhardt had recently been jumping off of rocks. Less than a mile up the dirt road, she ran into Rienhardt and Nadeau on foot. Rienhardt told her that their white Buick got stuck on a rock. He also told her that Ellis had not died from shotgun wounds, that they had dropped a rock on his head, and that, “I have brains all over my pants.” Tr. of Feb. 16, 1996 at 38.
The group dislodged the 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 MR-2, a chase ensued, and the three were arrested. The white 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, Charles Nadeau led police to Ellis’s body near the dirt road leading to Reddington Pass. He had been severely beaten about the head and torso, had shotgun wounds, and had had one or two large rocks 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.
Charles Nadeau’s trial on the above charges was severed. Christina George was charged with attempted arson, and with hindering prosecution. George also faced unrelated felony charges. George entered into a plea agreement in return for her testimony against Charles Rienhardt at trial.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/az-supreme-court/1328445.html
