by Shala Marks - May. 25, 2011 01:16 PM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
Phoenix police have arrested a man investigators suspect killed his girlfriend in Phoenix Tuesday, then left her body in a truck at a convenience store, according to court documents and the Phoenix Police Department.
Paul Lavon Hamilton, 38, was arrested Tuesday after police found the body of Stephanie Joyce, 46, in a Ford Ranger pickup outside an am/pm store near 27th Avenue and Northern Avenue, Sgt. Tommy Thompson, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, said.
Hamilton was Joyce's boyfriend, Thompson said.
Police arrived at the store shortly before 5 a.m. after receiving reports that a woman was a passed out in a pickup.
Fire officials later determined the woman, Stephanie Joyce, was dead, Thompson said.
She had bruises on her face, arms and legs and an apparent bite mark on her chest and torso, according to a Maricopa County Superior Court documents.
According to the documents, a female friend drove the pickup to the store around 3 a.m. The woman initially told police Joyce was in the passenger seat and was passed out drunk.
She later told police she had been staying with Hamilton and Joyce at his apartment near the 1600 block of West Osborn Road.
The woman heard Hamilton and Joyce arguing Monday while she was trying to sleep in another bedroom. According to the court documents, the woman told police she could hear Hamilton apparently hitting Joyce and eventually heard a loud noise as if someone fell to the floor.
The friend said she entered the room to see Joyce on the bedroom floor as Hamilton knelt over her body, according to the court documents. She left, keeping her door ajar, and heard Hamilton giving "rescue breaths" to Joyce, the document said.
According to the documents, the woman said Hamilton told her that Joyce was dead and that he had killed her. Hamilton put her body in the pickup ordering the friend to sit between the two of them.
He drove around and threw various items into dumpsters, according to the documents.
The woman told authorities that Hamilton forced the woman to hold Joyce's head up, which was moving back and forth, or he would kill her as well, according to the documents.
He stopped around Northern Avenue, gave the woman $4 for gas and she fled fearing for her safety.
After the woman talked to police, authorities set up surveillance at the apartment. Hamilton was arrested as he left his apartment.
Police used a search warrant and discovered his apartment appeared to have been cleaned, according to the documents.
According to those documents, investigators discovered blood on a man's shirt and drops of blood on top of Hamilton's bed. The bed was stripped of sheets.
Hamilton told police he and Joyce had been in a relationship for several years, even living in a hotel for six months at one point, according to the documents.
Hamilton said police often came to their homes around the Valley due to disputes.
Hamilton was previously convicted for assaulting Joyce in an domestic-violence incident. One case she had marks on her face, arms and legs and an apparent bite mark on her stomach, the file said.
Police said he admitted to being in Joyce's truck Monday and that he last saw her after she left his apartment after an episode of "Dancing With the Stars."
He denied injuring Joyce, but told police the two had had a loud argument that day, according to the documents.
Hamilton had numerous scrapes, scratches and bruises on his face, chest and arms.
He was booked into the Maricopa County Sherriff's Office on suspicion of second-degree murder and other drug-related offenses.
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