On Wednesday, October 16th, 2013, detectives from the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office were called to the County Attorney’s Office regarding a threat against a Casa Grande man, age 41, who was serving as the foreman for grand jury proceedings.
The foreman reported when he was on break from the proceedings and went out to his truck, he saw a handwritten note which read, “You better not find my dad guilty! I followed you home last Wednesday. I know where you live, asshole! Early Road sound familiar.” Grand jury proceedings were interrupted as detectives began to investigate this case.
The handwritten note was on a guest check commonly used by restaurants. Detectives contacted the company who manufactures the checks and asked if they could tell by the serial number on the check which business it was sold to, but they could not.
Detectives went to restaurants in Pinal County and began trying to track down where the check came from. At L & B restaurant in Florence, they spoke with a waitress. She was shown the note left for the grand jury foreman, and she said she found one similar to that written on a check by the cash register when she came in to work this morning. She told detectives another waitress was on duty yesterday and the note for the foreman appeared to be written in her handwriting.
A short time later, detectives spoke with the waitress who allegedly wrote the note. She was very cooperative and said that two men came into the restaurant the day prior and asked for something to write on. They said they were going to play a joke on a co-worker who was in town at grand jury. One of the men first wrote the note and then asked her to re-write the note so their friend didn’t recognize their handwriting. The waitress told the men it was a bad idea because their friend would probably call the sheriff. They convinced her by telling her they would tell their friend the following day at work. She wrote the note, then the two men paid for their meal by credit card and left.
The restaurant was able to provide a credit card receipt with the name of “W Packard” as the cardholder’s name. Detectives attempted to call the jury foreman at his work but were told he was out of the office. They asked if somebody by the name of “W Packard” worked there, and they were told he does but was not in the office.
A short time later, detectives received a call from Will Packard, age 33, of Maricopa, who said the entire thing was a “prank” he and Robert Marquez, age 36, of Casa Grande, were playing on their co-worker. They had taken a photo of the note on his vehicle as well and were going to show him the photo when he came into work.
The foreman was contacted and informed of the “prank” his friends attempted to play on him. The foreman was upset that his friends would do something like this.
Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “This case was investigated by multiple detectives who were pulled from other priority cases they were working on. Grand Jury proceedings were interrupted as well because of the prank these men tried to pull on their friend. Hopefully, the men find it as funny when they are involved with the judicial process as detectives will submit the investigation to the County Attorney’s Office and ask they review the case for criminal charges including Influencing a Juror, Disorderly Conduct and Threatening and Intimidating.”