Inmates on death row in Arizona

Donald Delahanty was found guilty of the May 2005 shooting murder of Phoenix police Officer David Uribe during a traffic stop.

Joseph Clarence Smith Jr. was convicted in the 1975 slayings of two teenage girls he had picked up while they were hitchhiking in Maricopa County. Both women died of asphyxiation after Smith forced dirt into their mouths and nostrils and taped their mouths shut. He also stabbed each girl several times.

Aaron Gunches was sentenced to death in February 2008 for the 2002 murder of a man near Mesa. Gunches kidnapped and killed Ted Price in the desert off the Beeline Highway. Gunches pleaded guilty to the crimes.

Abel Hidalgo shot to death 35-year-old Michael Cordova and 38-year-old Jose Rojas inside a Phoenix auto body shop on Jan. 3, 2001.

Alan Champagne was convicted of first- and second-degree murder in June for the killing of Philmon Tapaha and Brandi Hoffner in 2011. Champagne buried their bodies in the backyard of his mother's home, where they were found clothed, mummified and covered in lime.

Alfredo Garcia is on death row for his part in the murders of two Phoenix bar owners in 1992.

In 2014, Allyn Smith, a former juvenile probation officer, fatally shot Khalli Lawrence, the 19-year-old mother of their child. Lawrence filed for child support after her child was born, court records show. But after making it clear he wanted nothing to do with the child, Smith threatened to kill Lawrence if she sought child support, police said.

Alvie Kiles lived in Yuma with his girlfriend, Valerie Gunnell, and her two daughters, 9-month-old Lecresha and 5-year-old Shemaeah. On Feb. 9, 1989, Kiles used a bumper jack to bludgeon Valerie to death in their home. He then killed the two children because they started "screaming and hollering" as he killed their mother. Kiles bragged about the murders to an acquaintance and took him on a tour of the murder scene, during which Kiles stepped on Valerie’s head. Lecresha’s body was later found floating in a canal in Mexico, but Shemaeah’s body was never found.

Scottsdale resident Andre Leteve fatally shot his sons, Alec, 5, and Asher, 1, in March 2010 before shooting himself in the face in a botched suicide. The prosecution said Leteve committed the ultimate act of revenge against the wife who was divorcing him.

Anthony Spears was convicted of murdering a girlfriend in 1992. He stole her truck, guns and money and headed to California, where he began living with another girlfriend.

Benjamin Cota was sentenced to death in 2009 for slashing a Peoria woman to death. A jury had determined that he deserved a life sentence for killing the woman's husband. Victor Martinez, 73, and Guadalupe Zavala, 40, had hired Cota to help remodel their house. In December 2003, he waited for them to return home, beat Martinez to death with a hammer, and then stabbed and slashed Zavala. He wrapped their bodies in plastic and hid them in a bedroom closet and lived in the house for a week before family members discovered the bodies.

Dauntorian Lydel Sanders was sentenced in 2014 for fatally beating his live-in girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. Chandler police say 3-year-old Schala Vera wasn't breathing when she was found lying between a toilet and a bathroom sink where she crawled to hide in August 2009.

Brad Lee Nelson of Golden Valley was convicted in the 2006 death of Amber Leann Graff, 14.

Brian Womble, along with Paul Speer, conspired to kill Aden Soto. Womble reportedly shot and killed Soto, 42, and seriously injured Enriqueta Soto, 30, both of Phoenix. Police say Womble and Speer broke into the Sotos' apartment. The suspects previously had been arrested for burglarizing the Sotos' apartment, and they returned to kill the residents believing they could avoid jail time for burglary. They shot the couple as they slept in their bed with a young child between them.

Charles David Ellison was sentenced to death in February 2004 for the 1999 burglary and murders of an elderly Kingman couple. Ellison's accomplice, Richard Finch, was sentenced to life in prison.

Charles Hedlund, along with his half-brother, James McKinney, was convicted of killing a 65-year-old man during one burglary and a 40-year-old woman during another burglary, both in Chandler, in 1991.

Charles Reinhardt was convicted of beating to death a Tucson man who had been left as "collateral" in a 1995 drug deal that went awry.

Christopher Hargrave formed a White supremacist organization called the Imperial Royal Guard with Steven Boggs. On May 19, 2002, Hargrave and Boggs went to rob a Jack in the Box restaurant, where Hargrave was once an employee. Hargrave distracted two employees while Boggs went through the back door. Hargrave and Boggs then took the three employees into the cooler and shot them several times in the back.

Christopher Montoya was convicted in 2022 for the October 2017 murder of Abbigail Rinaldi.

Christopher Payne was convicted of murder in the starvation deaths of his two children, 3-year-old Ariana Payne and 4-year-old Tyler Payne. The girl's decomposing body was found in a storage locker in February 2007. The boy's body was never found.

Christopher John Spreitz was convicted of raping and killing a Tucson woman in the desert in 1989. Spreitz admitted raping the woman and crushing her skull with a rock because she would not stop screaming.

Cory Morris was convicted in 2005 of killing five women. Morris strangled each woman during sex in his camper van and then defiled the bodies again after death.

Dwandarrius Robinson was sentenced to death in 2018 for the 2012 murder of his pregnant girlfriend.

Danny Jones was convicted of killing a man and his 7-year-old daughter at their Mojave County home and stealing guns and a car in 1992.

Darrel Pandeli killed Holly Iler after what he claimed was an abortive sexual encounter. He slit her throat and mutilated her body. After being captured and interrogated for that murder, he confessed to killing Holly Humphreys more than a year before the Iler murder. He was tried separately for the murder of Humphreys and convicted of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to death for Iler’s murder, but the sentence was reversed. He was sentenced to death again in a new sentencing proceeding.

Darrell Lee was convicted of robbing a Phoenix man, driving him to La Paz County, trying to kill him with automobile exhaust then strangling him while an accomplice hit him in the head.

David Scott Detrich was convicted in a 1989 murder in Benson. Detrich became enraged when a drug deal went bad and took the victim into the desert, where he raped and murdered her.

David Gulbrandson was convicted of brutally torturing and murdering his girlfriend in 1991 after she ended their relationship.

During the early morning hours of May 25, 1989, David Ramirez, a parolee, murdered Mary Gortarez and her 15-year-old daughter, Candie Gortarez, in their Phoenix apartment.

Investigators said Derek Chappell drowned his girlfriend's 2-year-old son at an apartment complex. Chappell walked the toddler to their apartment complex pool March 11, 2004, and held Devon Hinman Shackleford under the water as he struggled. Chappell was then said to have walked away, leaving the boy's body behind.

Edward McCauley was sentenced to death in January 2020 for the 2014 murder of his estranged wife. McCauley stalked Dawn McCauley and shot her, leaving her body in the cab of her truck. A journal later found by detectives inside Edward McCauley’s residence indicated he planned to kill her.

Edward James Rose was convicted of killing Phoenix police Officer George Cortez in 2007 as he tried to arrest Rose on suspicion of passing a bad check at a west Phoenix check-cashing store.

Efren Medina was 18 in 1993 when he beat and stomped former Arizona Republic reporter Carle Hodge, 71, then dragged him into the street and ran over him. Another man, Ernest Aro, 19 at the time of the crime, was also found guilty in the murder and sentenced in a separate trial to life in prison.

Eldon Michael Schurz beat and robbed a man outside a Phoenix hotel, then Schurz doused the man with gasoline and set him on fire.

Eric Boyston was a transient on Feb. 2, 2004, when he shot and killed his grandmother, Mary Boyston, and his uncle, Alexander Boyston, then stabbed family friend Timothy Wright to death. He also shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend and his great-aunt during the rampage.

Eric Mann was convicted of shooting to death two men during a 1989 drug "rip-off" in Pima County and dumping their bodies in Graham County. The bodies were found the next day, Nov. 24, 1989, but the murders remained unsolved until Mann's girlfriend confessed to state of Washington authorities that she witnessed the murders.

Ernest Gonzales was convicted of murdering a man in 1990 after the man and his family came home to their Phoenix townhome to find Gonzales burglarizing their house.

Ernesto Martinez was convicted of killing Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Robert Martin, who stopped him for driving a stolen Monte Carlo in 1995. Martinez shot Martin four times and took his service revolver. Because of Martinez's reckless, high-speed driving while fleeing the scene, several other drivers took down the Monte Carlo's license-plate number. Martinez was overheard bragging and laughing about killing a cop, during a telephone call.

Eugene Doerr was convicted of raping and killing a woman in 1994. He had called police to report a dead woman in his bedroom and said he did not know what had happened. The victim was found lying on the floor with several lacerations to her head. Doerr was found covered in blood.

Eugene R. Tucker was convicted in September 2001 of killing a woman he'd been dating after she rejected his efforts to see her. Tucker beat and sexually assaulted the woman in her apartment before shooting her in the head. He also shot and killed two other people living in the apartment.

Fabio Evilio Gomez was convicted in the 1999 murder and sexual assault of neighbor Joan Morane. Gomez hit Morane in the head more than 18 times with a metal dumbbell.

Frank Anderson was convicted of a 1996 triple murder in Mohave County along with Robert Poyson. The victims were 39-year-old Leta Kagen, her son, 15-year-old Robert Delahunt, and 50-year-old Roland Wear.

Frank McCray was convicted in 2005 of the murder of Chestene "Tina" Cummins, who was beaten, raped and strangled in her north-central Phoenix apartment in 1987. The crime wasn't solved until 2000.

George Russell Kayer was convicted of killing a man outside Kingman after he had borrowed money from the man and gambled it away in Laughlin, Nev.

Gilbert Martinez killed a South Dakota man during a burglary in Sun City in 2006.

Rodney Hardy, an ex-con with a successful limousine service, was convicted in the 2005 shooting death of his wife, Tiffany Lien, 21, and her lover, Don Stanciel, 32, at a Tempe apartment complex.

Homer Roseberry was convicted for the slaying of a fellow marijuana trafficker, whose body was found in October 2000 in the brush along Arizona 93. Roseberry shot the man, allegedly to keep his share of the profits.

Isiah Patterson was convicted of stabbing his girlfriend, 32-year-old Consquelo Parker, to death at a volleyball court in a Mesa apartment complex in 1996.

Israel Joseph Naranjo was convicted in the July 1994 drive-by shooting death of Betty Jean Roberts, a 28-year-old mother of four.

James Johnson was convicted in the brutal killing of an immigrant owner of a massage parlor in Mesa in May 2016. He was sentenced to death in June 2016.

James McKinney, along with his half-brother, Charles Hedlund, was convicted of killing of a 65-year-old man during one burglary and a 40-year-old woman during another burglary, both in Chandler, in 1991.

James L. Styers was accompanied by Roger Mark Scott to a desert wash where Styers shot and killed Christopher Milke, his roommate's 4-year-old son, in 1989.

Jason Bush was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the killings of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, in 2009. Prosecutors said that he and two others dressed as law-enforcement officers and forced their way into the victims' home.

Jasper Rushing was sentenced to death for the second time in 2023 in the murder of his prison cellmate Shannon Palmer in 2010. His Arizona capital case was brought back for a do-over because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings about sentencings.

John Allen was sentenced to death in November 2017 for the brutal 2011 murder of 10-year-old Ame Deal. Allen was one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight.

In 2005, John Fitzgerald went to his mother's Sun City West home, stabbed and slashed her with a sword and shot her to death with a pistol as her elderly fiance looked on.

John Edward Sansing was convicted of killing a church worker, Trudy Calabrese, who came to his home to deliver a food box in 1998. Sansing raped, beat and fatally stabbed the woman, while his four children were in the home. He covered her body with a pile of clothing, then left to trade Calabrese's jewelry for drugs that he and his wife consumed. Each of the four Sansing children saw Calabrese's dead body in the home.

Johnathan Ian Burns, 29, of Mesa, was convicted of raping and murdering Jacquelan "Jackie" Hartman, 19, of Gilbert, and leaving her body in the desert in 2007.

Jose Acuna-Valenzuela was convicted of killing Edgar Sigala, 24, as he and a woman were leaving an ice-cream shop near 75th Avenue and Indian School Road in Phoenix in 2011.

Juan Velazquez was convicted of beating to death 20-month-old Liana Sandoval, the daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Her body was found in a canal weighted down by a cement block.

Julius Moore is on death row for the 1999 shooting deaths of two men and a woman in the 1800 block of East Yale Street in Phoenix. Another woman was critically injured in the shooting.

Leroy Cropper who had one year left to serve on a drug conviction, admitted in May 1999 that he stabbed Perryville Corrections Officer Brent Lumley to death after the officer knocked over a picture of Cropper's mother.

On July 13, 2002, Leroy Dean McGill walked into an apartment in north Phoenix carrying a cup full of gasoline. McGill doused Charles Perez and Nova Banta with the gasoline and lit them on fire. Perez subsequently died from his burns. Banta was so severely burned and treating physicians had to put her in a medically-induced coma in order to save her life. McGill bragged that he had mixed the gasoline with Styrofoam to form a gel so that it would burn hotter.

Jahmari Manuel, who also goes by the name Warren Carl Manuel, was caught on surveillance video when he shot Phoenix pawn-shop owner Darrell Willeford in Willeford's store on Thomas Road and 35th Street on March 31, 2004.

Scott Nordstrom was convicted in the shooting deaths of Thomas Hardman and Carol Lynn Noel. The 28-year-old Hardman and 50-year-old Noel died two weeks apart in the 1996 robberies at the Moon Smoke Shop and the Tucson Firefighters Association Union Hall.

Over the course of two trials in 2007 and 2011, Mark Goudeau, known as The Baseline Killer, was convicted of 84 felonies involving 33 victims.

Michael Apelt and his brother, Rudi, both from Germany, were convicted in the 1990 murder of Michael's wife, Cynthia Monkman, in the desert near Apache Junction one day after Michael took out a $400,000 policy on her life. In May 2009, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge removed Rudi Apelt from Arizona's death row, ruling that he is mentally retarded.

Michael Jonathon Carlson was convicted in the deaths of Rebecca Lou Lofton, 52, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Alliman, 49, in 2009.

Mike P. Gallardo received the death penalty in 2009 for the 2005 murder of Rudy Padilla, 20. According to police, Gallardo tied the victim's hands and feet, placed a pillowcase over his head and then shot him in the head during a burglary.

Businessman William Craig Miller was found guilty of shooting Steven Duffy, 30, and Tammy Lovell, 32, to death on Feb. 21, 2006, to prevent them from testifying against him in a Scottsdale arson case. He also fatally shot Steven's brother, Shane Duffy, 18, and Lovell's children, Jacob, 10, and Cassandra, 15, to eliminate witnesses.

Patrick Bearup helped beat, shoot and throw Mark Mathes off a cliff in the remote Crown King area north of Phoenix, along with Sean Gaines, Jeremy Johnson and Jessica Nelson. Mathes and Nelson were living together at the time of the killing, and Nelson suspected Mathes of stealing money from her. She asked Gaines, Bearup and Johnson for help, and the four plotted to "take care of this matter."

Paul Speer, along with Brian Womble, conspired to kill Aden Soto. Womble reportedly shot and killed Soto, 42, and seriously injured Enriqueta Soto, 30, both of Phoenix. Police say Womble and Speer broke into the Sotos' apartment. The suspects previously had been arrested for burglarizing the Sotos' apartment, and they returned to kill the residents, believing they could avoid jail time for burglary. They shot the couple as they slept in their bed with a young child between them.

On March 15, 1992, Pete Rogovich robbed a Super Stop Food Mart and shot and killed the clerk. He later went to the Palo Verde Trailer Park where he encountered Phyllis Mancuso and shot and killed her. He entered the home of Marie Pendergast, where he shot and killed her. After leaving the Pendergast residence, he shot and killed Rebecca Carreon in the driveway of her home. He fled on foot to a local restaurant, where he took a vehicle from an employee at gunpoint. He then robbed a Circle K. He was later apprehended after a pursuit by local law-enforcement agencies.

Pete Van Winkle was caught on surveillance tape as he beat and choked fellow inmate Robert Cotton to death in May 2008 at the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix. A jail detention officer then saw Van Winkle drag Cotton's body out of a cell and attempt to throw it over a second-floor railing in the jail. At the time of the murder, Van Winkle was in jail accused of trying to kill a man in February 2008.

Preston Strong was convicted of murdering six people in 2005: his best friend, best friend's girlfriend, and the girlfriend's four kids. He spent hours asphyxiating four of the victims and shot his best friend and the youngest boy. Strong was sentenced to death in May 2017.

Richard Djerf was convicted in the 1993 murder of a family of four in Phoenix. He believed a member of the family had burglarized his house.

On March 27, 1988, Richard Greenway and a juvenile accomplice burglarized the Tucson home of Lili Champagne. Greenway shot and killed Champagne and her 17-year-old daughter, Mindy, with a .22 rifle. He then stole some property, including Champagne's Porsche. The two later abandoned the Porsche after setting it on fire. Greenway later boasted to a jail inmate that he had killed the women because they had seen his face.

Richard Hurles was convicted of raping and murdering a librarian at the Buckeye Public Library in 1992.

Robert Louis Cromwell was convicted in the 2001 murder and sexual assault of his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter at a Phoenix home. The girl was found in the master bedroom, unclothed and severely injured. She had 13 stab wounds to her back, a fractured skull and broken jaw. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Robert Hernandez was sentenced to death for an April 2008 triple murder in Peoria.

Robert Poyson was convicted of a 1996 triple murder in Mohave County along with Frank Anderson.

Robert Walden Jr. was convicted of raping and strangling a woman in her Tucson apartment in 1991. He was linked to two other sexual assaults.

Roger Murray, along with Robert Murray, was convicted of murder in a 1991 rampage in which they broke into a home north of Kingman, shot and killed the two residents, then ransacked the house.

Ronald Schackart had known Charla Regan since high school and they continued to be friends at the University of Arizona. On March 8, 1984, Schackart told Regan he needed a place to stay since his parents had kicked him out of their house. He also told her he needed to talk to her about his wife filing rape charges against him. They went to a Tucson Holiday Inn where Schackart raped Charla at gunpoint, hit her in the face with the gun, strangled her to death, and stuffed a large sock into her mouth. He later reported the killing to the police and claimed he had not intended to kill Charla.

Ronald Williams was convicted in the 1981 shooting death of a neighbor who was checking out a burglary at a Scottsdale home. He had previously twice been convicted of murder.

Ronnie Lovelle Joseph was convicted in the 2004 shooting death of his wife's 14-year-old nephew. Joseph went to his wife's apartment, where he argued with her before fatally shooting Tommar Brown. Joseph also wounded his wife and another person.

Ruben Johnson was sentenced to death in December 2003 for the shooting death of a woman who was supposed to testify in an armed-robbery case in which Johnson had been an accomplice.

Ruben Garza was convicted of gunning down his uncle's estranged wife and her roommate in December 1999.

Sammantha Uriarte (formerly Allen) was sentenced to death in August 2017 for the brutal 2011 murder of her 10-year-old cousin, Ame Deal. Allen was one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight.

Scott Drake Clabourne was convicted in the 1980 rape and murder of a University of Arizona student he met at a Tucson bar. He strangled the woman, then stabbed her in the heart three times. Her body was dumped in an arroyo, where it was found the next morning. Clabourne's accomplice, Larry Langston, pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence.

Scott Lehr was known as the Baby-Seat Rapist. Driving a late-model Chevrolet with a baby seat in the back, Lehr stopped and offered rides to women. Lehr drove them to remote areas of the desert, where he sexually assaulted them. Three died, their heads crushed. Seven others, from 10 to 47 years old, were left for dead or let go, bruised and bloody. Lehr went to death row for the deaths of Margaret Christorf, 40, in October 1991; Belinda Cronin, 21, in January 1992; and Michelle Morales, 19, in February 1992.

Roger Mark Scott was convicted alongside Debra Jean Milke and James Styers in the 1989 murder of Milke's 4-year-old son, Christopher. Scott was with Styers when he killed the boy, and Styers agreed to give him $250 to file a Social Security claim.

Sean Bernard Running Eagle was convicted of killing an elderly couple who confronted him and his accomplices during a 1987 burglary in Phoenix.

Shad Armstrong and his sister burglarized a home in 1996. A few years later, Armstrong learned that his sister planned to turn herself in for the burglary. Armstrong and a friend dug a grave on the friend's property and then murdered Armstrong's sister and her fiance.

Shawna Forde was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder in the May 2009 home-invasion deaths of Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul Junior Flores, 29. Prosecutors said Forde, a border activist, targeted Flores to obtain drug money to finance her anti-immigration activities.

Stephen Reeves was caught on surveillance video on June 2, 2007, as he beat 18-year-old Norma Gabriella Contreras with a brick, then choked her with a stick and finally slit her throat with a box cutter. Reeves was later found covered in blood in Contreras' car.

Steve Boggs was convicted in the May 2002 murders of Beatriz Alvarado, 31, Kenneth Brown, 27, and Fausto Jimenez, 30, during a botched robbery at a Mesa Jack in the Box at Lindsay Road and Main Street.

On May 23, 2001, Steven Newell attempted to rape 8-year-old Elizabeth Byrd as she walked to Cash Elementary School in southwest Phoenix. He strangled her before dumping her body in a ditch.

Steven John Parker was sentenced to death in 2010 for murdering his next-door neighbors. Parker was convicted in the slaying of Wayne Smith and his wife, Faye, who were found stabbed, beaten and robbed in their Phoenix home in 2005.

Thomas Riley was sentenced to death for a 2008 killing.

Todd Smith was convicted in the 1995 slayings of an elderly couple at a campsite in Coconino County. The victims let Smith in their trailer because he had wrapped a shirt around his hand to make it look like he had cut himself.

Tracy Allen Hampton was convicted of killing a Phoenix couple, Charles Findley and Tanya Ramsdell, in 2001. Tanya Ramsdell was five months pregnant at the time of the murders.

Trent Benson was sentenced to death in 2011 for the murders of two prostitutes he beat to death and dumped by the roadside, one in 2004 and the other in 2007.

Vincent Guarino killed a man in 2009 in an attempt to join a white supremacist gang.

Theodore Washington was one of three men convicted in 1987 of forcing their way into a Yuma home and shooting Ralph and Sterleen Hill in the head; Ralph Hill survived.

Wayne Prince was convicted in 2000 of shooting to death his 13-year-old stepdaughter, Cassie Parker, two years earlier during an argument with the girl's mother. He was sentenced to death by a Superior Court judge who found the crime to be "especially cruel and depraved."

Wendi E. Andriano of Ahwatukee was sentenced to death by lethal injection for bludgeoning her cancer-stricken husband with a bar stool and then stabbing him.

Chad Alan Lee was convicted of robbing, sexually assaulting and stabbing to death a pizza delivery woman and robbing and shooting to death a taxi driver in 1992. Police were able to track him down by finding his unusual order for a large Hawaiian pizza.