PHOENIX — A Tucson man has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for the murder of a 28-year-old man in west Phoenix in 2022.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that 48-year-old John Anthony Cole had been sentenced to 31 years in prison.
According to police documents, officers were initially called to investigate a possible kidnapping from a home in West Phoenix in late September of 2022.
A woman reportedly told police she had received text messages from her boyfriend, 28-year-old Antoine Smith, saying he had been kidnapped on Sept. 16 or 17 and was scared. He shared his location from an area in Chandler along I-10, police say.
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Police learned that Smith was kidnapped over a money dispute.
People who knew the suspect, 45-year-old John Cole, reportedly tried to communicate with him to ensure Smith’s safety, but Cole said he didn’t know where Smith was located and that Smith had gotten out of his vehicle at an unknown location.
Police say they were able to locate Cole’s vehicle headed to California. He was stopped near Quartzsite where he was taken into custody.
Human remains were reportedly discovered in the vehicle and additional human remains were found after Cole led detectives to a rural area south of Tucson.
During a police interview, Cole told detectives that while driving to Tucson he pulled off the I-10 in a rural area to use the restroom. He claims while there Smith attacked him but he was able to place him in a submission hold and eventually strangle him to death.
