Tempe police arrested a man and a teenager Thursday in connection with the Sept. 28 murder of 48-year-old Casey Blackwood.
Blackwood’s body was found with stab wounds inside a Dumpster near 10th Street and Ash Avenue on Sept. 30.
Ronald Therman-Lamar Alewine, 23, and a 14-year-old boy were arrested in connection with Blackwood's death, Tempe police spokesman Sgt. Steve Carbajal said.
Carbajal said investigators determined that on Sept. 28, while Blackwood was sleeping in a vacant foreclosed home on the 900 block of South Maple Avenue, Alewine attacked and repeatedly stabbed Blackwood.
Blackwood’s body was discovered in a nearby Dumpster on Sept. 30.
Carbajal said the 14-year-old boy provided Alewine with a knife, stood by Alewine as he stabbed Blackwood and later helped clean up the crime scene.
The 14-year-old boy, Alewine and Blackwood were transients, he said, and the murder scene was a spot often used by transients to sleep because the home was vacant.
Alewine and the boy had a previous altercation with Blackwood, Carbajal said, and the two went to the vacant home looking for Blackwood.
Alewine and the 14-year-old boy were frequent visitors to the Mill Avenue area, he said, and as the police investigation continued, Tempe police detectives assigned to the area were able to identify and locate the suspects.
Both Alewine and the 14-year-old are facing charges of first-degree murder, Carbajal said.
The case of the 14-year-old boy will be tried in adult court, he said.
“This investigation and resulting arrests illustrates how the Tempe Police Department continues to actively and diligently investigate violent crimes in our community as we continue to work toward our No. 1 goal of fighting crime,” Carbajal said.
Reach the reporter at mhendley@asu.edu
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