Watch CBS News

Ariz. massacre victim had called police on boyfriend J.T. Ready before

This undated 2010 photo of Jason "J.T." Ready shows him posing with an assault rifle. AP Photo/Courtesy Jason "J.T." Ready, File

(CBS/AP) GILBERT, Ariz. - Police say there had been previous calls about domestic violence at the Arizona home where five people were found shot to death on Wednesday.

Watch: Neo-Nazi group patrolling U.S. borderPictures: Cops believe neo-Nazi killed 4, self, in Ariz.

Authorities believe that Jason Todd "J.T." Ready killed his girlfriend, Lisa Lynn Mederos her daughter, 23-year-old Amber Nieve Mederos, Amber's boyfriend, 24-year-old Jim Franklin Hiott, and himself at the home he shared with Mederos.

Amber's 16-month-old daughter Lily was still alive inside but was pronounced dead soon after at a hospital.

Lisa Lynn Mederos, 47, made a domestic-violence call to 911 asking the police to come help her on Wednesday. Seconds later, the operator heard gunshots and the line went dead.

Gilbert police Sgt. Bill Balafas said that police responded to the Mederos home five times since 2009, most recently in February, when Lisa Mederos called police to report that Ready, who was reportedly a neo-Nazi who patrolled the border looking for illegal immigrants, had choked her in August 2011.

Balafas said there was not enough evidence to make an arrest and that no charges were filed. It's unclear why Mederos would have waited six months to make the call.

According to the Arizona Republic, a Scottsdale woman filed an order of protection against Ready in 2009, and in 2003 a woman who lived in Mederos's apartment complex accused Ready of stalking and spying on her.

Inside the Mederos home police found six military-issue grenades, and their serial numbers will be traced, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Tom Mangan said Thursday.

Anti-hate groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center have for years tracked Ready. "J.T. Ready was a violent thug who typifies the very worst element in the American nativist movement," said the SPLC's Mark Potok.

According to an SPLC profile on its website, Ready was court-martialed twice in 1996 while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, the first time after being gone for eight days without permission.

The center said Ready was demoted to private after the absence, jailed for three months and that, later that year, was court-martialed again for conspiracy, assault and wrongful solicitation and advice. He was found guilty, spent six months in detention and was discharged for bad conduct, the center said.

The Marine Corps was trying to confirm the center's information.

In January, Ready, who in 2006 ran and lost a race for the Arizona House, announced that he wanted to become sheriff in Pinal County. Ready listed himself as a Democrat, and most considered his chances of being elected laughable.

Former Arizona Rep. Russell Pearce, the chief architect of some of the state's tough legislation against illegal immigrants, was once Ready's political ally and friend, but said in a statement that he distanced himself after learning of his ties to white supremacists.

"At some point in time, darkness took his life over," he said.

More on Crimesider
May 3, 2011: Jason Todd Ready, reputed neo-Nazi, among five dead in Arizona murder-suicide

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.