GUILTY AZ - Officer Carlos Ledesma, 34, fatally shot in Phoenix drug sting, 28 July 2010

Chandler police officer, 2 suspects die in Phoenix shootout

At least one Chandler police officer and two criminal suspects were killed in a shootout during an undercover drug operation that went awry in south Phoenix on Wednesday evening.

The names of the dead were not immediately available late Wednesday because Phoenix police were still trying to sort out what happened inside a residence in the 2300 block of West Darrel Road where rescue personnel were called around 6:45 p.m.

The crime scene is in the vicinity of South 23rd Avenue and Vineyard Road.

A Phoenix police spokesman, Sgt. Steve Martos, said the Chandler police undercover operation involved about a dozen officers, some of them members of the Chandler department's SWAT team, when shooting erupted inside the home.

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A man accused of participating in a drug deal that led to the killing of a Chandler police officer in 2010 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday.

Thandika Taweh Singleton also pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to solicitation to commit possession of marijuana for sale.

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Arrested were Singleton, Darnell Reuna Jackson, John Howard Webber, Jerry Wayne Cockhearn Jr., Eldridge Auzzele Gittens, Christopher Paul Gonzales, Corey Royalty and Anthony Jerome Wright.

Gonzales pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October 2012. Gittens pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and possession and use of a weapon in a drug offense in October 2013. Webber pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a marijuana violation on July 15.

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John Howard Webber, 44, and Thandika Taweh Singleton, 45, were two of the eight men charged in connection with a July 28, 2010, drug deal with undercover Chandler police officers that ultimately ended in the fatal shooting of Detective Carlos Ledesma.

On Friday morning, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens sentenced Webber to 21 years in prison, with four years' probation after his release.

Webber pleaded guilty in July to one count of second-degree murder and solicitation to commit possession of marijuana for sale.

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On Friday afternoon, Superior Court Judge Margaret Mahoney sentenced Singleton 20 years in prison and 3 years of supervised probation upon release.

He, too, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and solicitation to commit possession of marijuana for sale.

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At Webber's sentencing, Lesema's widow, Sherry, told Maricopa County Superior Court Sherry Stephens: "July 28 is the day I wish I could go back and start over. I remember him walking out the door."

She went on to say that she was "so disappointed in our justice system. Six-and-a-half years later, people forget. We don't forget. We wake up thinking about it every day."

Sherry Ledesma addressed Mahoney, weeping as she stood with her two young sons, who were 6 and 7 years old when their father died. She recalled their romance and reminisced about the plans they had together, plans that were never fulfilled.

"All my dreams ... it's all gone. My boys will never know what that man was to me," she said.

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Doarnell Jackson's second-degree murder and aggravated assault plea carried 22- and eight-year sentences respectively. However, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Brad Astrowski credited Jackson with the seven years and 29 days already served since his arrest in 2010, meaning he will serve 22 more years.

The Ledesma family and members of the Chandler Police Department were unhappy with the deal, saying Jackson should have faced a stiffer sentence.1

Detective Ledesma's widow, Sherry, told Judge Brad Astrowsky, "30 years is not enough."

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