{"id":521644,"date":"2026-01-17T01:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/521644\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:20:16","slug":"man-pleads-guilty-in-2020-christmas-day-murder-of-circle-k-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/521644\/","title":{"rendered":"Man pleads guilty in 2020 Christmas Day murder of Circle K employee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/afjoizq7w77ncppz.jpg\" alt=\"2nd-degree murder plea reached in 2020 Christmas killing\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/video\/fmc-8n47lhs5y5114ubh\" data-v-4292be72=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2nd-degree murder plea reached in 2020 Christmas killing<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-4292be72=\"\">Timothy Bell, 35, reached a plea deal this week for the 2020 Christmas Day killing of 18-year-old Tyler Cardiel. Bell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, robbery and weapons misconduct, avoiding a potential death penalty.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\"><strong>PHOENIX<\/strong> &#8211; A man charged in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/news\/waiting-for-justice-why-a-man-accused-of-killing-a-teen-on-christmas-could-be-incompetent-to-stand-trial\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>2020 Christmas Day killing in Phoenix<\/strong><\/a> has taken a plea deal.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">On Christmas Day 2020, 18-year-old Tyler Cardiel was walking home from an overnight shift at Circle K when he was shot and killed near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/W+Indian+School+Rd+%26+83rd+Ave,+Phoenix,+AZ+85033\/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x872b1555f2c1a309:0xf14f53c820de26a6?sa=X&amp;ved=1t:242&amp;ictx=111\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>83rd Avenue and Indian School Road<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Police said Bell, who was homeless, used a handgun he had stolen days before the shooting. Last March, Bell was deemed competent to stand trial following a mental evaluation.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Court filings confirm Timothy Bell, 35, pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder, robbery and weapons misconduct.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The state had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/news\/murder-on-christmas-day-prosecutors-seek-death-for-man-accused-of-killing-teen-as-he-walked-home-from-work\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>previously been seeking the death penalty<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vlcsnap-2023-09-17-20h36m24s647.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-0dea8073=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-0dea8073=\"\">Tyler Cardiel (left) Timothy Bell (right) <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Bell\u2019s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 27.<\/p>\n<p>      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/phoenix\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phoenix<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2nd-degree murder plea reached in 2020 Christmas killing Timothy Bell, 35, reached a plea deal this week for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":521645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,6082,1588,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-521644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-crime-publicsafety","12":"tag-maricopa-county","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115907816680376976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}