A Texas businessman who posted $200,000 in bonds to a Cochise County court earlier this year so he could await trial at home on multiple aggravated assault charges from 2020 is back in a Bisbee jail after it was discovered he recently pleaded guilty to a new felony assault in Texas.
Ryan K. Edwards was arrested in November 2020 after the manager of a Sierra Vista auto repair shop was severely injured as Edwards drove away without paying a $4,000 bill for transmission work on his truck. The shop employees did not know at the time that Edwards was wanted for questioning in the violent beating of a man in Bisbee three days earlier.
Edwards, 32, was later arrested at the Arizona / New Mexico line based on an attempt to locate notice dispatched by the Sierra Vista Police Department.
A Cochise County grand jury indicted Edwards in January for both the repair shop incident and the Bisbee assault which left a man with a fractured nose, fractured orbital, and protracted vision damage. He was released from the Cochise County jail after posting a collateralized bond in each of the two cases from November 2020.
Then last month, Lori Zucco of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office filed a petition to revoke pretrial release after learning Edwards was on probation in Tarrant County, Texas where he had pleaded guilty to committing domestic violence assault by impeding the airway of a pregnant woman earlier this year.
During a Sept. 17 revocation hearing, Zucco argued to Judge Laura Cardinal that Edwards poses a safety risk to the community, to the victims in the two Cochise County cases, and to the witnesses in those cases. Gary Grynkewich, Edwards’ attorney in the cases, countered that his client was not technically convicted in Texas because the judge there deferred adjudication until the end of the probation period.
Cardinal heard compelling testimony from the owner and employees of Sierra Service Center about their dealings with Edwards, who was anxious to return to Texas but first needed the transmission replaced in his truck. When the repairs were completed on Nov. 12, Edwards got into the truck with the same woman involved in the recent Texas domestic abuse case. He had not paid the bill.
The judge reviewed surveillance video showing the service manager standing behind the truck as Edwards continues in reverse despite three employees yelling for him to stop. On the video, the service manager is seen clinging to the tailgate near the truck’s large rear tires. He eventually pulls himself up into the bed of the truck, only to be thrown out when Edwards makes a sharp turn and speeds away.
Bisbee Ofc. Jesus Valenzuela also told Cardinal about the unprovoked attack Edwards was involved with Nov. 9, 2020 and how Bisbee officers could not locate him afterward. But the most damning testimony about the risk Edwards poses on pretrial release appeared to have come, inadvertently, from Edwards’ criminal defense attorney in Texas.
Attorney Kathy Ehmann-Clardy took part in the bail revocation hearing by phone at the request of Grynkewich. Under questioning from Zucco and the judge, Ehmann-Clardy confirmed Edwards pleaded guilty to committing felony assault and admitted in court to the details of the assault, even though he will not be formally convicted in the case for some time.
Zucco’s closing arguments highlighted the fact Edwards’ conditions of pretrial release in Cochise County require the defendant to remain law-abiding, not that it has to be proven he is convicted of a crime. She also pointed to testimony from the Texas attorney who conceded a complaint was filed against Edwards earlier this month for allegedly violating probation by consuming alcohol.
The judge remanded Edwards to the custody of deputies with Cochise County Sheriff’s Office who were called in advance to the courthouse. He has been ordered back to court Sept. 27 for a pretrial conference at which time a trial date will be set.
Cardinal also exonerated the three bonds posted by Edwards to cover his $200,000 bail. The judge’s order releases the collateral used to secure the bonds, but Edwards is out $20,000 in non-refundable bond fees.
