Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 17

Efte Arizona Bmln Star Tucson, Friday, September 20, 1991 Page One sites 00 ioayproiosed' to tlOUSG training stadium Downtown-area plans were dropped last month; cost unavailable; i Reaction to the East Ajo sites has been mostly positive, in sharp contrast to the Initial reaction to the proposal for West Congress Street nd the Santa Cruz River. 1 1 1 1 Proposed 22nd sites for sPrin9 -i training citvof qth facilities south dotn NC TUCSON Aio Nsjr KIN0 COMMUNITY HOSPITAL Irvington -6 CD CD S. Drexel o. 3 0) 3 Valencia I 3 I TUCSON rri INTERNATIONAL Nfl AIRPORT -1 By Chris Umberis The Arizona Dally Star One month after preliminary plans for a baseball stadium near downtown were withdrawn, the focus has shifted to Pima County property on East Ajo Way near Kino Boulevard. Two parcels, on the north and south sides of Ajo, have been proposed for a major league spring training facility, including a stadium, county officials said.

Cost estimates for a training facility, Including five practice fields and health club-style facilities, were not available. A stadium could cost about $15 to $18 million. The sites are to be discussed this morning at the city's baseball task force meeting in Tucson Parks and Recreation offices. The county has up to three new tax authorities, including a 0.10 percent increase in sales tax that would have to be approved by voters, to pay for baseball facilities. Private investors remain interested, however.

Reaction to the East Ajo sites has been mostly positive, in sharp contrast to the initial reaction to the proposal for West Congress Street and the Santa Cruz River just west of downtown. "I think it has a great deal of merit," said City Councilman Steve Leal, a Democrat whose south- pervisors, said: "I think it will work out great The county owns a lot of land there." The West Congress site, about 39 acres, to owned by the Downtown Development Corp. Among other advantages given to the East Ajo property are its proximity to the airport, Hi Cor- bett, two southside hotels, and easy access to Interstate 10 and major roads to the eastside. Officials also noted that the East Ajo sites appear to be far enough away from the Western Hills and Sunland Gardens neighborhoods to the north. The baseball facility would provide needed ball fields and soccer fields for the southside.

"We need to work with the neighborhoods, but I don't think we'd be making an intrusion," Grijalva said. The baseball complex also must not adversely affect the county's Kino Community Hos-i pital, Grijalva said. The county has more than 100 acres of vacant land available on both sides of East Ajo Way. The Hi Corbett complex covers about 33 acres. Kino Community Hospital, La Colina Nursing Home and medical clinics are on the southeast corner of the southern parcel, but could easily be shielded from the baseball complex, said Bruce See BASEBALL, Page 4B City and county officials are working on proposals to lure up to three major league teams to Tucson for spring training, 'j The Cleveland Indians will leave HI Corbett Field, the club's spring training site in Reld Park, after next season.

The Seattle Mariners, the San Diego Padres and the expansion Colorado Rockies are being courted. One or two teams could use Hi Corbett, but officials want to have other sites available if teams want new facilities. The latest proposal adds a sixth location to the list of possible sites for a facility, including the one on West Congress, one on the southwest side, and three on the northwest side. "Of all the sites, this seems to have the stron-J gest selling points," said Pima County Supervisor I Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who joined Leal in opposition to the West Congress site. Reg Morri i Judy Margolls, The Arizona Dally Star side Ward 5 includes county-owned land.

son, the Republican chairman of the Board of Su Management is changing at KTTU-TV si i 1 1 Pi Mt rvL fi ti it New study rebuts criminal code link to prison crowding By William F. Rawson The Associated Press I MKT Public Administration, is at odds with many of the findings of a consultant hired by the Legislature to study the criminal code. The Legislature paid $200,000 for the study by the Institute for Rational Public Policy of Tacoma Park, which termed the state's criminal code a failure. "Arizona currently lacks a coher-, ent and principled sentencing system," according to Kay Knapp, the consultant who prepared the institute's report. "That system is not respected by those who operate it and is no reason to suspect that the criminal population gives it more respect" Block said his study found that Knapp's criticism of Arizona's sen- PHOENK An Arizona State University professor commissioned by prosecutors to study the state's criminal code said yesterday that he found no evidence that the code's mandatory sentencing provisions are responsible for crowding in the state's prisons.

Attorney General Grant Woods said, meanwhile, that the prisons themselves and not the criminal code bear the primary responsibility for the state's burgeoning prison populations. Woods described Arizona's prison system as "a complete disaster that should be overhauled from top to bottom." The criminal code study by Mi- i Mr cnaei hiock, a proiessor oi economics in ASU's College of Business and See CODE, Page8B little Southern colonel' missing for two weeks By Tom Turner The Arizona Dally Star Under a formal agreement an- nounced yesterday, Mountain States Broadcasting Inc. will take over-management of KTTU-TV, Channel' 18, in the first week of October. Mountain States currently owns and manages KMSB-TV, Channel Fox Network affiliated Mountain States is a subsidiary of; the Providence Journal of Providence, R.I. Channel 18 is owned by Clear' Channel Communications a San: Antonio-based company that operates 16 radio and six TV stations in? 15 markets.

Gear Channel purchased Channel' 18 from the Catholic Diocese of Tuc son in February 1989. Clear Channel will retain owner ship of the Channel 18 license and: transmission facilities, company officials said yesterday. 1 "Under the arrangement Moun-! tain States will provide program- ming for Channel 18 and will also; sell all advertising on Channel 18," a See STATIONS, Page 4E5 Probatiqn violations mean prison for man who terrorized class By Steffannle Fedunak The Arizona Datty Star Donn Gene Duncan who his Sabino High School French classy at gunpoint in 1988, yesterday was' sentenced to 19 years in prison after twice violating the terms of his pro-; nation. "Your honor, I know that Ive-been given a lot of chances by this', court and that I violated the trust of your honor and the Duncan, now 21, told Superior Court Judge Thomas Meehan. "I'm real sorry about that I hope that if do get sentenced to prison, that I will; get a light sentence so that I can get out in my lifetime." Meehan did not give Duncan the" See DUNCAN, Page 78 v.

By Douglas Kreutz The Arizona Dally Star Police are looking for an 87-year-old Tucson man, described by friends as a dapper "little Southern colonel with snow-white hair," who I 1 If. "There's no indication of foul play at this time," McEwen said. "We've checked the apartment and there's no sign of a struggle and nothing out of the ordinary. "Airports don't have anything logged (concerning travel by Savage), Greyhound Bus doesn't have anything logged, hospitals have nothing and there were no unidentified bodies matching his description," she McEwen described Savage as white, 5-foot-8, 160 pounds with white hair and a small mustache. He wears glasses, walks with a mahogany-colored wooden cane and often wears a Panama-style straw hat she said.

Peggie Perkins, a neighbor and friend of Savage, described him as "a very friendly man, just a beautiful person." "He looked just like a little Southern colonel with snow-white hair disappeared from his Tucson apartment two weeks ago. Officer Briget McEwen, coordinator of missing person investigations for the Tucson Police Depart I Savage A.E. Aralza, The Arizona Daily Star ment, identified the missing man as Charles Uno, dos, tres Davis Bilingual Elementary School students soclatlon at the UA, which Is sponsoring a week Gabriel Reyes, 10, left, and Rudy Gallego, 8, of activities showcasing Mexican culture, yester-tune their guitars before performing on the Unl- day brought in the young musicians as well as Savage. Savage', who lived at the Vi-viendas Asistenciales Apartments at 5602 E. Edison St, apparently was last seen Sept 6 or Sept.

7. See SAVAGE, Page 4B versity of Arizona Mall. The Mexican Student As- other mariachl groups. Trial begins in death of 3 Points boy Conner gains NRA's endorsement as group reverses its field on Pastor By Steve Melssner The Arizona Dally Star The National Rifle Association endorsed Republican Pat Conner in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District yesterday amid charges that Democrat Ed Pastor was misleading about his stand on gun control An NRA spokesman said the organization was prepared to endorse Pastor but decided against it after talking to Conner. James J.

Baker, director of the NRA's Political Victory Fund, issued a letter endorsing the Republican. Baker said Pastor claimed in a position paper that he supports the right to own firearms. But Pastor said he did not seek the NRA's endorsement nor hide his sup- Maturano stalked and killed Estes. Peasley said Ballard was motivated by anger at Estes for stealing an intake manifold from a car Ballard and Maturano, a neighborhood mechanic, were working on. Peasley said he would demonstrate that.

"Mr. Ballard said he was going to kill (Estes), and then he went out and did it and later on he at least made partial admissions." In an unusual move, Ballard's two sisters testified for the prosecution yesterday, giving details of various stories their brother related to them about the Incident after his arrest Linda Ballard, a younger sister, said Ballard told her the night of his arrest that he had traveled with Maturano and Estes out to Sierrita Mountain Road to go "partying." She gave this account of what her brother said: While in the desert, Ballard went off to urinate, See TRIAL, Page 2B By Kim Kelllher The Arizona Dally Star Stephen E. Ballard Jr. shot a 16-year-old boy repeatedly, may have tried to decapitate him with a machete and left in a water tank at a cattle ranch because the boy stole an engine part from his car, a prosecutor said yesterday. But Ballard's attorney told a jury that he was forced at gunpoint to shoot the boy after the youth was killed by an older cohort who used Ballard as a "patsy" so he could blame him for the murder.

Ballard, 21, went to trial in Superior Court yesterday on a first-degree murder charge in the July 1990 slaying of Glen Estes, of Three Points. Ballard, also of Three Points, was charged in the murder with a co-defendant Claude E. Maturano, 33, who will be tried separately later. Kenneth Peasley, chief criminal deputy of the County Attorney's Office, painted in his trial opening a sordid picture of Ballard, who he said along with -r" r. The gun-control issue before Congress involves the Handgun Violence Protection Act also known as the Brady Bill, after James Brady, a former presidential press secretary who suffered a serious head wound in an assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan.

Pastor says he will support the legislation, which will require a buyer to wait several days before a gun purchase can be completed. The wait is to be used by authorities to determine If the buyer has a criminal record. The NRA opposes the Brady Bill It prefers legislah tion that would require states to install computer systems that would allow instant checks for criminal recr ords. Conner says he is a fervent supporter of gun owner ship, and "opposes even the slightest gun-control legisla- f- See NRA, Page 4B AypGrt for gun control. Pastor's position paper says he "strongly supports lithe right guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution to bear arms.

It also says mandatory waiting periods for handgun purchases would in fringe on that fight.