The matriarch of a family involved in a brawl that turned fatal in the Cottonwood Wal-Mart parking lot earlier this year had her bail reduced after her attorney attempted to show the woman didn’t take a direct role in the fight.
Ruth Gaver, 52, was charged with resisting arrest following the March 21 fight, which left Enoch Gaver, 21, dead, his brother, 18-year-old David, shot in the stomach and Cottonwood Police Officer Sgt. Jeremy Daniels shot in the leg.
The children of the couple, who traveled to the area from Idaho, are being charged with assault in various forms, including assaulting an officer and causing a riot during the parking lot fight, according to court records.
Police arrived on the scene after store employees reported a disturbance.
Two juveniles, ages 11 and 15, remain in the custody of the Yavapai County Juvenile Detention Center.
Ruth Gaver was excused from appearing at the evidence hearing May 6 in Yavapai County Superior Court in Camp Verde, where Judge Joe Butner reviewed a police dash camera recording of the incident.
Gaver’s original bond had been set at $50,000.
Butner lowered the bond to $5,000 with the stipulation that Ruth Gaver not leave the state of Arizona.
Butner said that Gaver would also be allowed to talk with her husband, Peter, as well as her two minor children.
“Fifty thousand dollars would be impossible,” said Defense Attorney Sabrina Shaw. “It’s against her Constitutional rights to keep her in jail under those conditions. There is absolutely no reason to believe she is a flight risk.”
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, May 13, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
