Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

John Henry Knapp was sentenced to death for allegedly setting a fire that killed his two daughters, Linda Louise, 3 1/2, and Iona Marie, 2 1/2.  The fire occurred in the children's bedroom at the Knapp house located at 7435 East Capri in East Mesa, AZ.  Shortly before the coroner's inquest, Knapp's wife, Linda, fled to Nebraska.  Knapp was told that a fuel can found at the site of the fire had no identifiable children's prints (thus ruling out accident), but did contain numerous adult prints.  During his interrogation, Knapp confessed to setting the fire, but recanted within minutes and never wavered in maintaining his innocence.

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James Robison was sentenced to death for the murder of reporter Don Bolles.  Bolles covered organized crime for the Arizona Republic newspaper.  He died shortly after a bomb exploded in his car, which was parked outside a hotel in downtown Phoenix. As he lay dying, he whispered, “They finally got me, the Mafia, Empise.  Find John Adamson.”  Empise was a corporation with ties to the dog track industry and suspected of being connected to the mob.  Adamson was a well-known crime figure who was prosecuted for Bolles' murder.

As part of a plea deal in which he would receive a 20-year sentence, Adamson named several co-conspirators, including Robison.  Adamson admitted planting the bomb, but said Robison detonated it.  On appeal, Robison was granted a new trial.  Adamson, though, refused to testify again against Robison without a new deal that let him out of prison immediately.  Robison was released in 1980.  The prosecution went after Adamson and secured the death penalty against him.  In the course of the appeals from that sentence, Adamson agreed to cooperate once again and his 20-year sentence was reinstated.

Robison was recharged in 1990.  At retrial in Dec. 1993, Adamson and a series of jailhouse informants testified against Robison.  The jury also learned about new evidence that indicated Adamson was framing Robison to protect his true accomplice.  The jury acquitted Robison of all charges.  (TWM)  [3/07]

Robert Charles Cruz was sentenced to death for the contract murders of two people.   Redmond, 46, and his mother-in-law, Helen G. Phelps, 70, had been shot to death by three men in Redmond's home.  The assailants also shot Redmond's wife, Marilyn, but she survived.  Cruz had allegedly hired three men to kill Redmond because he wished to take over Redmond's print shop, Graphic Dimensions.  Prosecutors said Cruz wanted to use the firm to launder money from connections in Las Vegas.

The evidence against Cruz came from a felon who received immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony.  On appeal, the Arizona Supreme Court held that the trial court had demonstrated actual prejudice against Cruz, and that the conviction could not stand.  Two subsequent retrials ended in hung juries, but a fourth trial ended again in a conviction and a death sentence.  Once again, however, the Arizona Supreme Court found the conviction to be faulty and sent the case back for a fifth trial.  At this new trial, new evidence emerged about the prosecutors' pressuring of witnesses and offering deals.  The fifth trial jury heard the whole story and acquitted Cruz of all charges.  [7/05]

Ray Krone was sentenced to death for the murder of Kim Ancona, 36, a bar manager who was killed at the CBS Lounge restaurant where she worked.  Krone was a regular customer at the restaurant/bar and knew Ancona. Krone had an alibi and his 10-1/2 shoe size did not match the 9-1/2 size shoe print left at murder scene. Hairs and partial fingerprints found did not match Krone either. However, police felt Krone's teeth matched a bite mark on the victim.  Krone was dubbed the "Snaggletooth Killer" because one of his top front teeth stuck out.  At trial, Dr. Raymond Rawson, a nationally known forensic odontologist, testified that he was 100% certain that bite mark on the victim matched Krone.  After Krone's conviction was overturned, a retrial jury convicted him again in 1996 despite defense testimony from three forensic dentists that the bite mark did not match.  This time the judge sentenced him to life in prison, citing doubts about whether Krone was the killer.  In 2001, DNA testing of blood found on victim was matched to the actual killer, Kenneth Phillips, and Krone was released after serving 10 1/3 years.

It was later learned that prior to the second trial the prosecuting attorney was personally told by two of the country's most respected dental forensic experts that there was “no way” the teeth marks on Ancona's body were made by Krone.  The experts asserted the prosecution's dental expert was absolutely wrong to identify Krone as the source of the bite marks. Not only did the prosecutor not inform the defense of this exculpatory information, but he proceeded with seeking the death penalty.

In 2004, Krone came to the attention of the TV show Extreme Makeover, and agreed to a makeover that included the replacement of five of his front teeth.  The program documenting his transformation was broadcast in Feb 2005.  In April 2005, Krone was awarded $1.4 million by Maricopa County and in September he was awarded $3 million by the city of Phoenix.  In Feb 2006, the Arizona legislature publicly apologized to him.  Krone's case is profiled in the first half of the book The Death Penalty on Trial by Bill Kurtis.  (Forensic Files) (JD32 p16) (IP) (CCADP)  [12/06]

Louis C. Taylor was convicted of 28 counts of first-degree murder.  He was accused of setting fire to the Pioneer International Hotel on the northeast corner of Stone Ave. and Pennington St. in downtown Tucson.  Twenty-nine people died as a result of the fire, including one woman who died months later from injuries sustained in the fire.  Taylor, 16, whose juvenile-court record included theft, was accused of setting the fire (or fires) as a diversion so he could steal from guests' rooms.  No one saw him set the fire. But a hotel employee saw him in a stairwell looking up at the flames and mentioned him to police. Other witnesses said he was one of that night's heroes, helping to evacuate the hotel.

The chief arson investigator found no obvious evidence of arson—no residue of flammable liquid or burned matchsticks.  Instead he asserted from burn patterns that two fires were started at least 60 feet apart on the fourth floor hallway.  Modern experts now dispute the arson finding, and even one of the original investigators, Marshall Smyth, said that he and another fire investigator were like members of "a black magic society" that in those days relied on untested assumptions about what indicated arson.  "I came to this opinion some time ago that neither one of us had any business identifying that fire as arson."

Taylor, after decades of imprisonment, recalled that over the years others -- including his former trial judge -- advised him to seek a reduced sentence.  But one condition was that he admit guilt and show remorse.  Taylor said, "I told them I'd rather die in prison."  In 2003, the case was featured on a 60 Minutes episode.  (Hotel Online)  [1/07]

Larry Youngblood was convicted of abducting 10-year-old David L. from a church carnival and repeatedly sodomizing him.  David said his assailant had a disfigured eye.  Youngblood fit this description and the traumatized child identified Youngblood in court as the perpetrator.  Youngblood lived alone, had a history of mental illness, and had had previous run-ins with the law.

Youngblood appealed his conviction because the state had collected semen samples left by the assailant both in and on the victim, but had failed to perform tests on the samples to determine the blood type of assailant.  It had also failed to refrigerate the samples so that tests could be performed at a later date.  Such tests might have completely exonerated Youngblood.  The Arizona Court of Appeals agreed with Youngblood that he had been denied due process and overturned his conviction.  The state appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court which reinstated Youngblood's conviction in 1988.  This decision was later recognized as an important precedent which limited the rights of criminal defendants.

In 1998, Youngblood was paroled from prison, but was reincarcerated the following year for failing to register his new address as required by sex offender laws.  However, by this time, advances in DNA testing technology allowed DNA tests to be performed on the degraded semen samples.  In 2000, Youngblood was exonerated of the crime after such tests were performed.  In 2001, the DNA profile obtained from the tests was found to match a Texas inmate, Walter Cruise, who was subsequently convicted of the crime.  (IP) (JD13) (Arizona v. Youngblood)  [8/09]

David Wayne Grannis was sentenced to death for murder of Richard Sutcliffe.  While hitchhiking, Grannis and a co-defendant, Daniel Ethan Webster, were given a ride by Sutcliffe.  Sutcliffe offered the men a place to stay.  At trial the state argued that Grannis and Webster killed Sutcliffe while robbing him and burglarizing his home.  Grannis testified that Sutcliffe sexually propositioned him and became aggressive with him.  Grannis ran out of the house and did not know that Sutcliffe was dead until he was arrested.  Grannis believed his screams must have awakened Webster, who killed Sutcliffe after he left.  A female friend of Webster testified that she overheard Webster bragging to her cousin about committing a murder.

During trial, the prosecution introduced photos depicting homosexual activity that were found in Grannis's room at the time of his arrest.  The Arizona Supreme Court overturned Grannis's conviction in 1995.  It ruled that the photos were “marginally relevant” and that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting them.  The Court stated that the probative value of the photos was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.  At retrial in 1996, the charges against Grannis were dismissed because of insufficient evidence.  (DPIC)  [10/07]

Jimmy Lee Mathers associated with Teddy Washington and Fred Robinson.  The three lived in Banning, a small town in Southern California.  Robinson was in a volatile relationship with his common-law wife, Susan Hill.  With Robinson's permission, Hill went to visit her father and stepmother, Ralph and Sterleen Hill.  The couple lived in Yuma, Arizona.  Susan then refused to return, and got a protection order to prevent Robinson from visiting her there.  She then left without telling Robinson and visited her grandmother in California.  Ralph and Sterleen then were shot during a home invasion.  Sterleen died.

The invasion appeared to be a robbery as the intruders stated they were narcotics agents and said, “We want the dope and money.”  The house was also ransacked.  There was some circumstantial evidence linking Robinson and Washington to the crime.  However, there was little evidence linking Mathers.  Nevertheless, the three were arrested and tried together.  At trial, Mathers' attorney moved for a judgment of acquittal on the grounds of insufficient evidence.  The motion was denied.  All three defendants were convicted and sentenced to death.

In 1990, the Arizona Supreme Court reviewed Mathers' case, and “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution” found a “complete absence of probative facts.”  It noted that the evidence presented at trial had “nothing to do with Mathers.”  The court vacated Mathers' conviction and entered a judgment of acquittal.  (TWM)  [3/07]