DOCUMENTS PAINT PICTURE OF PHOENIX DRUG STING GONE WRONG

On July 28, undercover Chandler police Detective Carlos Ledesma and
two other officers were about to close a $250,000 drug deal.

Posing as dealers, the three officers were selling 500 pounds of
marijuana to a group of men they believed to be drug dealers. As soon
as the deal was done at the south Phoenix house, police would swoop in.

"Count the money," the buyers kept urging, according to court documents.

What was supposed to be $250,000 was in a bag on the pool table.
Another undercover officer went to count it. Instead, a man pointed
an AK-47 at him.

"He's got a gun, he's got a gun!" the detective shouted, running
toward the kitchen, according to a defense brief.

The man with the weapon - identified by police as Doarnell Ruena
Jackson - rounded the corner and fired four rounds into Ledesma, who
was sitting at a card table in the kitchen.

A moment later, the Gilbert man was dead.

Documents filed in Maricopa County Superior Court lay out the moments
that led to the gunbattle that night, which left three people dead,
including Ledesma, and three people injured, including two detectives.

Filings from prosecutors describe an officer "shot in cold blood."
The drug dealers were planning to steal the dope, and Ledesma,
prosecutors say, "never even had the opportunity to defend himself."

But filings on behalf of some of the defendants criticize the police
operation, which involved marijuana from a police evidence locker.
They say it was a scenario full of confusion, rife with tension
created by money, drugs and guns - and, eventually, panic.

Reverse sting planned

The officers planned a reverse sting that was supposed to result in
the arrests of more than a handful of drug suspects and the seizure
of $250,000 and the 500 pounds of pot.

According to briefs from attorneys in the case, detectives worked
with a confidential informant. The identities of that informant and
undercover officers are being withheld by The Republic because they
could be involved in future operations.

Police say Christopher Paul Gonzalez, who since has recovered from
gunshot wounds and is being held on $3 million bond, was the middle
man who set up the drug buy.

The deal was set in motion with a phone call. The informant and
middle man met with buyers at one location, documents say. At a
second, two undercover detectives provided a sample of the product.

They got closer to a deal. It was supposed to take place on West
Maldonado Drive in Phoenix.

The undercover officers arrived with the marijuana in the trunk of
the car and drove into the garage. No one was supposed to die or even
draw a gun.

Panic or premeditation?

What happened next is a matter of debate.

Special Assignment Unit officers were supposed to swoop in when money
was exchanged. But it never was. Instead, according to one defense
briefing, a "shooting gallery" of gunshots exploded inside the house.

Prosecutors say police did not fire until Ledesma was shot.

In fact, there was never $250,000 on the table. It was $1 bills
stuffed inside counterfeit $100 bills, according to the prosecution.

As Ledesma's colleagues saw him fall to the kitchen floor, they
turned, pulled out their guns and faced the living room, where two to
four others were firing at them, according to the prosecution. Each
officer was shot in the abdomen.

Jackson's attorney, Alan Tavassoli, says there was no premeditation.
The undercover officer who saw a gun "mistakenly" believed that he
was being threatened and that a robbery was to take place.

"Forensically, there is no way to tell who fired the first shot,"
Tavassoli said.

But prosecutors say major drug dealers would not allow anyone to be
there by accident - only people who were "accomplices, bodyguards,
countersurveillance."

"This was a planned event, not something that went wrong at the last
second as no officers fired or even pointed a gun at these defendants
prior to Detective Ledesma being fired upon," a prosecution brief says.

The county alleges defendant Jerry Wayne Cockhearn was an armed
bodyguard standing in the poolroom with the shooter. But his
attorney, Marc J. Victor of Chandler, says Cockhearn "was just
standing there; it is guilt by association."

Cockhearn, Jackson and Markiese Royalty were nabbed driving away,
documents say. Royalty died at the scene, and three guns and $1,300
were found in the car. Suspect Roger Tatum was also fatally shot.

The documents say that as many as 14 suspects were involved in the
drug sale-turned-tragedy, although only seven have been charged.
Officials have suggested some got away that night.

The seven defendants are held on bonds of $2 million to $3 million,
facing charges ranging from first-degree felony murder to possession
of marijuana. They are scheduled to appear in Superior Court today
for an initial-status conference.

Prosecutors declined to comment for this story, and Phoenix police
would not comment because the criminal investigation is ongoing.

The state has not decided if it will seek the death penalty but has
submitted a list of possible witnesses with hundreds of names and the
plan to use the defendants' prior felonies, among other evidence.
Defense attorneys say there are thousands of pages and photos to go through.

"This was a shooting gallery. How was this a planned event?"
Tavassoli asked in an interview. "It smacks of a chain of errors. . .
. This is a tragedy all around."