Garwin woman pleads not guilty to gun charges on school grounds | News, Sports, Jobs

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GARWIN – A local woman has pleaded not guilty to all charges stemming from a September incident in which a loaded gun was allegedly found in her vehicle parked on school property in Garwin.

On September 27, Ashley Nichole Marie Bazan, 33, of Garwin, was arrested by the Tama County Sheriff’s Department on a warrant on a number of charges, including possession of firearms for use by minors, two counts of criminal possession of a child. offense of carrying a firearm and carrying a weapon on school grounds; all are Class D felonies. He was also charged with two counts of child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

On October 28, Bazan filed a written arraignment in Tama County District Court requesting a speedy trial and a not guilty plea.

The charges in the case stem from various incidents that occurred last September. On Sept. 21, Bazan allegedly left the two minor victims in the case — a 13-year-old, a three-year-old — unsupervised at his home on Garwin Center Street for approximately four hours, according to court documents. Meanwhile, the elderly victim took a loaded Sig Sauer P227 (pistol) from the top of the cabinet and took a photo of it. In the criminal complaint, it was stated that the photo was sent to another young person as a ‘show of self-defense’. The firearm in the photograph, which Bazan later claimed was his, did not have a trigger lock or safety mechanism.

Two days later, on September 23, Bazan allegedly called convicted felon Gabriel Allen Alvarez, the only adult in his Garwin home at the time of the search, and asked him to move the same loaded gun from one location to another. In the bedroom closet on the upper floor of the residence. At the time, Alvarez was babysitting the minor victim of the case.

That same day — between 1:45 and 2:15 p.m., when classes were in session at GMG — a Tama County deputy seized a loaded Taurus .357 handgun from Bazan’s white Chevrolet Silverado, which was parked on the east side of the school. The land on Fourth Avenue. The gun was “left in plain sight on the dashboard” of Bazan’s vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

When contacted by the newspaper for comment on Oct. 8, GMG Superintendent Chris Petersen said Bazan was in the school building on Sept. 23 as a parent.

Under the arrest warrant in the case, Bazan’s bail was set at $5,000 cash; After being arrested on September 27, he left the same day.

Bazan’s jury trial will begin at 9 a.m. on December 9, 2024, at the Tama County Courthouse. A case management conference was also scheduled before the hearing and is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 21.