Police are Probing Stenson's ex-girlfriend.
PHOENIX -- An ex-girlfriend who made death threats to Dernell Stenson is being investigated by authorities who are trying to determine whether she had any role in Stenson's death, the Arizona Republic is reporting.
Suspect Maye re-arrested
PHOENIX -- One of four men facing charges in connection with the killing of Dernell Stenson was re-arrested Thursday.
Federal marshals picked up Robert Maye in Phoenix on an outstanding warrant out of Iowa. Maye is charged with violating conditions of his supervised release.
Maye was first arrested three days after Stenson was found murdered on a street in a suburb of Phoenix. He's charged with hindering the investigation into the killing.
The Arizona Republic reported earlier this month that Maye was a member of the federal witness protection program.
Police say Stenson was kidnapped Nov. 5 during a robbery of his SUV and killed while trying to escape.
-- The Associated Press
According to the newspaper, two weeks before Stenson was kidnapped and murdered, the Cincinnati Reds outfielder told Scottsdale, Ariz., police that the ex-girlfriend had sent a death threat by text message to his cellphone: "U better pray I never see you U again. I swear Dernell U R worth a Murder charge 4 & that is all U R worth."
Friends and family confirmed to the newspaper that she harassed Stenson across several states over an 18-month period, saying at various times that she was pregnant, miscarried his child, was pregnant again and miscarried again. A police report obtained by the newspaper identified the ex-girlfriend as Jennifer R. Gaddis of Indianapolis.
At one point, Stenson's agent told the newspaper, the woman faked her death to try to force the ballplayer to call her.
The Republic has also learned that on Oct. 22, a day after Stenson received the telephone threat, two men later charged in his death were stopped in Missouri on suspicion of unrelated drug activities.
Half brothers Kevin G. Riddle, 43, and Reginald A. Riddle, 19, were stopped Oct. 22 near St. Louis. A spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Missouri confirmed to the newspaper that the men were released after being forced to surrender more than $11,000 in cash they had in their possession.
Investigators told the newspaper that they believed the Riddles had driven to Arizona from Illinois or Indiana just weeks before Stenson's killing and that neither had a job.
Kevin was arrested on charges of car theft Nov. 5, just two hours after Stenson was found on a Chandler, Ariz., street. Stenson had been shot in the head, chest and abdomen at close range, then run over by his own car. It was the same car that Kevin was driving when he was arrested.
Reginald, of suburban Chicago, was arrested the next day and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and kidnapping.
David Griffith, 20, of the Salt River Reservation near Scottsdale, was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and kidnapping. He was released from prison in March after serving 21 months for attempted car theft.
Robert Lee Maye, 32, of Phoenix, was arrested at his home three days after the killing and accused of hindering prosecution by trying to rent a motel room for one of the suspects, according to the Republic. Maye posted bond shortly after his arrest and disappeared but was rearrested Thursday afternoon on a Nov. 10 federal warrant for probation violation.
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