Two Republican Arizona State Senators, Anthony Kern and T.J. Shope, are calling on Attorney General Kris Mayes and Governor Katie Hobbs to protect the citizens of Arizona by immediately rescinding the release of a seriously mentally-ill patient, Rodney Aviles, who was housed at the Arizona State Hospital (ASH), after being found incompetent to stand trial in the brutal murder of his own mother and seven-year-old niece.
On Thursday, multiple media outlets reported on the release of Aviles from ASH after he was held there for more than two decades. But back in February of this year, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office sent a letter to Mayes saying it had serious community safety concerns and believed Aviles posed an ongoing threat to his family and the community at large.
Aviles beat his 7-year-old niece and mother to death in Phoenix in 1999. The courts sent Aviles to Arizona State Hospital after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial. Doctors decided that he was no longer a threat to himself and or other people and told the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office that he would be released.
Aviles’ family are worried about his welfare but they do not want him to be released. The family only learned about his pending release from an Arizona Republic reporter.
“If this man is unfit for trial after murdering his family, he’s unfit to be on the streets with the general public and must stay under proper care and supervision,” said Shope. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services, I’ll be working with my colleagues to bring truly independent oversight of the Arizona State Hospital. This is clearly necessary to keep patients and citizens safe from the winds of politics.”
“We have a Governor issuing numerous unconstitutional executive orders left and right, allowing taxpayer funded sex-change surgeries, stripping county attorneys of their prosecutorial powers, protecting a Death Row inmate from execution, acting as a travel agency in transporting illegal immigrants to their preferred destinations, and even focusing on hairstyles of state employees,” said Kern. “Now, we have an individual who is clearly an imminent danger to society being immersed back into the community because of the incompetence of the Hobbs’ Administration. Unfortunately, she and Mayes are nowhere to be found when public safety is at risk. When Mayes should be defending our laws and prosecuting the most vile criminals, she’s instead advocating for lawlessness. The citizens of this great state and the victims who have been through unthinkable suffering deserve immediate action from these so-called ‘elected officials.’ Their priorities are completely tone-deaf and out of touch with the needs of our state. Any fallout or further victimization from the release of Aviles will strictly be the result of inaction from Hobbs and Mayes.”