Fall League blues / P. 22
Arts board's request / P. 4 An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ......................... 3 COVID-19 impacts high school football games.
COMMUNITY ......... 16 Mesa artist in Grand Canyon show.
BUSINESS ............. 20 Web site helping Mesa businesses.
Region offers fall festivals, events. COMMUNITY ............................... 16 OPINION ....................................... 18 BUSINESS ..................................... 20 SPORTS ........................................ 22 GETOUT ..................................... 25 PUZZLES ...................................... 28 CLASSIFIED ................................. 32 Zone 1
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Mesa slaying underscores rise in domestic violence BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
J
anell Mora accomplished many things in her life. She gave birth to two boys, earned two master’s degrees and represented Arizona State University on student recruiting conferences in China and other countries. But in the end, all Mora, 40, wanted was peace and safety for her two children and herself. After her marriage to Stephen Mora soured, she thought she had made arrangements to end the relationship amicably and had a meeting set up with Stephen on Sept. 28. The meeting never happened. Instead, the Scottsdale Realtor, 53, is suspected of fatally shooting his wife of three years and four months on Sept. 26 as she jogged near her Mesa home at Power Road and the Loop 202, leaving her in the road. Mora then drove to the Mesa Police Department’s downtown headquarters, where he shot himself in the head in his vehicle. He remains in the hospital in critical condition. Detective Nik Rasheta, a Mesa police spokesman, said of�icers responded to a reported shooting in the 3100 block of N. Power
JANELL MORA
STEPHEN MORA
Road “and located Janell Mora deceased on the roadway,’’ with witnesses present. “The suspect �led the scene and called 911 to say he shot his wife and was now suicidal. He stated he was at the police station and when of�icers arrived at the Main Police Headquarters, they heard a single gunshot and then observed Stephen exit the vehicle bleeding profusely from a head injury.’’ Mora is expected to face homicide charges
if he survives. “She was out for a jog. He ambushed her,’’ said Amy Hall, Janell’s sister. “They were going to get together and sign some documents in a couple days. She was trying to escape the situation.’’ Hall said her sister was a devoted mother of her two boys, 8 and 9, from a previous marriage. She said Janell’s motivation was to pro-
to a halt Dec. 31, Deputy City Manager Natalie Lewis believes she has a plan in to keep the program going through 2021 with other federal funds that have a longer expiration date. The last thing Lewis and other Mesa of�icials want is to see the program come to an end after a breakthrough in addressing chronic homelessness in a more holistic manner, giving people the opportunity to address the root causes of their problem, including mental illness and alcohol and drug addiction. Although keeping the program will cost about $1 million in federal grants, Lewis, Mesa Police Detective Aaron Raine and other supporters say that merely feeding the vicious
cycle of repeated arrests, court appearances and jail time generally achieves nothing other than chewing up tax dollars. “We’ve made so much progress and had so much success. This program really �illed a gap,’’ offering a better option than homelessness, Lewis said. “We can get them housing. That allows us to work with them, as they make a commitment to move forward.’’ Mesa used some to set aside 100 rooms for homeless people who wanted help and were willing to follow the rules, which include no drugs nor criminal behavior.
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Virus aid enables Mesa to attack growing homelessness
BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
GETOUT ................. 25
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
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mid the recession, sickness and death caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mesa’s Off the Streets program stands out as a beacon of hope in a dark time. One of the city’s wide-ranging programs supported by $93 million in federal pandemic relief, Off the Streets has rescued 89 people from homelessness, housing them in an undisclosed east Mesa motel to receive services to help them become independent and functional members of society. Although most of the federal aid will come
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