At about 1:30 in the morning on Friday, November 29, 2013, a few hours after Thanksgiving Day ended, Jeffrey Bellemare was working his shift as a uniformed security guard at the Graybriar Apartments in west Phoenix when someone shot and killed him. He was 59 and unarmed.
On Monday, nearly 13 years later, Phoenix police announced that they had arrested a suspect. Joe Gerardo, 43, was taken into custody in Globe on November 3 and booked into a Maricopa County jail on a charge of first degree murder, Fox 10 Phoenix reported. Gerardo has not been convicted of anything and is presumed innocent.
Police have said little about how the case broke. Detectives received new information this year, according to Arizona's Family, but the department did not say what it was. "Homicide Cold Case detectives identified the suspect in this incident as 43-year-old Joe Gerardo," Phoenix police Sgt. John Buchanan said, adding that detectives "worked tirelessly in the pursuit of numerous leads" over the years. No motive has been released.
What the old tip page says
For most of those 13 years, the public face of the case was a listing with Silent Witness, the Phoenix area crime tip program. We read the Silent Witness case page, case number 2013-1691, which still carries the original appeal.
It places the shooting at 3810 North Maryvale Parkway, the Graybriar complex, near 55th Avenue and Indian School Road. It offers a reward of up to $2,000. And it describes not one person but two. "A male and female were observed running from the scene and getting into the listed vehicle," the page says. It lists two suspects, a white or light skinned Hispanic male and a white or light skinned Hispanic female. The page as we read it gives no vehicle description, even though the sentence refers to one.
Police have announced one arrest. Neither the department's statements nor the news reports we read say whether investigators still believe a second person was involved, or whether the woman described in 2013 has been identified. That is the most obvious open question in the case.
Bellemare's family has long believed he was targeted. His wife, Karan, told Arizona's Family in 2023, "There were hearing witnesses, people who heard him say, 'This is what you deserve' before they shot him." Whether that account matches the evidence detectives now hold has not been made public.
Our timeline, by the day count
November 29, 2013, about 1:30 a.m.: Bellemare is shot at the Graybriar Apartments. Day 0.
November 29, 2023: The tenth anniversary passes with the case open. Day 3,652. Karan Bellemare's public comments date from that year.
2026: Detectives receive new information, according to police, who have not said when.
November 3, 2026: Gerardo is arrested in Globe. Day 4,722.
November 9, 2026: Police announce the arrest, six days later. Day 4,728.
By our arithmetic, Gerardo was 29 or 30 years old at the time of the shooting, based on his reported age of 43 at his arrest. The stretch from the killing to the arrest is 12 years, 11 months and 5 days.
Why the clock never ran out
Arizona sets no deadline for charging a killing. Under Section 13-107 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, a prosecution "for any homicide" may be "commenced at any time." In legal terms, an arrest after 4,722 days stands on the same footing as one made the next morning, though the evidence may have aged.
The charge is the most serious in the state's code. Under Section 13-1105, first degree murder includes causing a death "with premeditation," and it "is a class 1 felony" that "is punishable by death or life imprisonment." Whether prosecutors would seek death is a separate decision for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which has not announced one. Under the current text of Section 13-752, if the state does not file a notice seeking death and an adult is convicted of premeditated first degree murder, "the court shall impose a sentence of natural life." Which version of Arizona's sentencing law would apply to a killing from 2013 is a question a court would settle if the case ever reached that point.
What the arrest does not yet tell us
The public record so far is thin. As of Monday, no charging document, probable cause statement or court date had been reported, and Arizona's Family said it had requested records from Maricopa County Superior Court. Those papers usually explain what investigators found and why they believe they have the right person. They should also show whether the 2013 descriptions, the vehicle and the woman seen running, figure in the state's theory.
Other recent cold case arrests show how much can follow the first announcement. In Spokane, police later laid out a decades old tip, a ruse letter and DNA in the 1986 killing of Mary Ann Turner. In Bexar County, deputies arrested a man in the 2019 death of Meagan Gonzales on an evidence tampering charge rather than murder, a reminder that the first charge is not always the last.
What to watch
Gerardo's first appearances in Maricopa County Superior Court, and the probable cause statement that comes with them, are the next step. Watch for any indictment, any notice from the county attorney about the death penalty, and any word on the second person in the 2013 description.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
