Arrest made in fatal stabbing outside Mesa Goodwill last month

PHOENIX – More than three weeks after a man was stabbed to death outside a Mesa thrift store, police arrested a suspect last week.

Luis Angel Nunez, 45, was taken into custody Feb. 9 and booked into jail on a second-degree murder count in the death of 32-year-old Johnathan Gliege, the Mesa Police Department said in a press release Tuesday.

Nunez, who was also wanted on four probation violation warrants, is accused of stabbing Gliege to death outside the Goodwill at University Drive and Gilbert Road on Jan. 17.

Gliege died of a puncture wound to the heart, according to court records.

On Jan. 19, police put out a call to the public for information about the case.

Johnathan Gliege was murdered in Mesa on January 17, 2023, do you have information that could help solve this case? Read more here.. https://t.co/4AWZp8NkdY pic.twitter.com/EuBfNE1glX

— Mesa Police Dept. (@MesaPD) January 19, 2023

The victim’s cellphone indicated he’d been texting with somebody named Angel and they were to meet at the Goodwill on the day of the murder, police said.

The number for Angel was registered in the suspect’s name at an address near the Goodwill, police said.

Investigators used a witness account and data from Nunez’s cellphone to place him at the crime scene.

The arrest form for Nunez says he has previous convictions for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, narcotics possession, burglary, theft and possession of stolen property.

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