Ricky Wassenaar is being accused of murdering three fellow inmates at a prison in Arizona. According to initial reports Ricky Wassenaar was involved in a brawl with Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage, and Donald Lashley that left the inmates dead. Very little information is being released so far. This is what we know about the inmates involved
Ricky Wassenaar, pictured above, is notorious in the Arizona prison system. In 2004 along with Steven Coy would take two prison correctional officers hostage for fifteen days. The female officer was sexually assaulted repeatedly by both men. Due to the 2004 hostage situation Ricky Wassenaar was sentenced to an additional sixteen life terms for kidnapping, dangerous or deadly assault by prisoner, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and first-degree escape
Saul Alvarez was sentenced in 2004 for murder.
Thorne Harnage was sentenced last year for the sexual assault of a young family member
Donald Lashley was sentenced to two life terms for our counts of sexual conduct with a minor under 15 years old, two with a minor under 12 years old, three counts of molestation of a child, and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor under eighteen
Ricky Wassenaar News
A notorious prisoner killed three fellow inmates, including two convicted pedophiles, during a prison brawl in Arizona on Friday, the state’s Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry has said.
The incident occurred at Arizona State Prison Complex Tucson.
State officials have named the three dead men as Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage, and Donald Lashley.
A preliminary report alleges that Ricky Wassenaar approached the men with the intent to harm them. No further details about the killing have been made public.
The only named suspect is another inmate named Ricky Wassenaar, who is already serving 16 life sentences after he was convicted of leading a prisoner’s revolt in 2004. That incident resulted in one of the longest prisoner standoffs in US history.
Alvarez was sent to prison in 2004 after he was convicted in Maricopa County of first-degree murder.
Harnage arrived in prison last year after he was convicted in Pima County of engaging in sexual conduct with a minor. According to the Pima County Attorney’s Office, Harnage abused his niece when she was 7 or 8 years old, and it took prosecutors more than seven years to put him away.
Lashley arrived at the facility in 2023 after he was convicted in Pima County on four counts of sexual conduct with a minor under 15 years old, two with a minor under 12 years old, three counts of molestation of a child, and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor under eighteen. He had been sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Ricky Wassenaar was convicted in 2005 on 19 charges, including kidnapping, dangerous or deadly assault by prisoner, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and first-degree escape after he was involved in a 2004 hostage situation at a state prison in Lewis.
During that incident, Ricky Wassenaar and another man, Steven Coy, were convicted of taking a pair of prison guards hostage for 15 days. One of the guards was a woman and claimed the inmates raped her several times during the standoff.
He is currently serving 16 life sentences for his involvement in the standoff.
Investigators have not publicly shared a motive for the killings at the time of this report.
The prison canceled its visitation hours in response to the recent violence.
According to data from the Arizona Department of Corrections, the number of homicides in its prisons this year is already more than the total number of homicides in 2023 and 2024 combined.
The state counted five total homicides in its prisons during those two years. By February 2025 — the most recent month we have data for — there had already been four homicides in Arizona state prisons. When you add the three deaths from Friday’s killing, that will bring the total up to seven deaths.
Ricky Wassenaar More News
An infamous prisoner serving 16 life sentences is accused of killing at least three inmates at the Arizona State Prison Cimmaron Unit in Tucson on Friday, April 4.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry confirmed that Ricky Wassenaar killed Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage, and Donald Lashley.
Alvarez was serving a sentence for a Maricopa County murder, Harnage was convicted in Pima County of sexual conduct with a minor, and Lashley was serving a sentence for a Pima County child molestation case.
Wassenaar is serving 16 life sentences for his role in a prison standoff in Arizona years ago.
Wassenaar and Steven Coy were convicted of taking two guards, one man and one woman, hostage for 15 days at the Arizona State Prison Lewis Complex in Buckeye in 2004. Lois Fraley, one of those guards, said she was raped several times.
Wassenaar allegedly used a kitchen guard’s uniform to trick another guard into letting him into a prison watchtower. He got the uniform by overpowering an officer with a handmade weapon.
The ensuing stand-off was one of the longest prison hostage situations in U.S. history.
Wassenaar and Coy both had violent backgrounds, including crimes in the Tucson area, before the standoff.
Wassenaar was already serving a sentence for armed robbery and assault before the standoff. Coy was sentenced to life in prison in 1993 for kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual abuse and aggravated assault following a robbery in which he raped a woman. He had a long criminal record and has been in and out of prison since 1984.
Coy was given seven life sentences for his role in the hostage standoff.
According to ADOC records, Wassenaar was moved to a prison in Florence following the incident Friday. Coy happens to be currently in a state prison in Florence.
The criminal investigation in the Friday homicides is ongoing, and the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office will do the autopsies, according to ADCRR.
All visitations at the prison were postponed Friday and there was no word on when they would resume.
https://www.kold.com/2025/04/05/three-inmates-dead-following-altercation-state-prison-tucson