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Alan Champagne Arizona Death Row

Alan Champagne was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of a couple. According to court documents Alan Champagne would murder the couple, Philmon Tapaha and Brandi Hoffner for Philmon. Philmon Tapaha was the brother of Alan’s girlfriend who he believed would cause problems with their relationship. Alan Champagne would murder the couple, burn their bodies and bury the remains in his mother’s backyard. Alan who was on parole at the time for another murder would eventually be arrested for the murders after the police found the remains seven months later. Alan Champagne would be convicted and sentenced to death

Arizona Death Row Inmate List

Alan Champagne 2021 Information

ASPC Eyman, Browning Unit
PO Box 3400
ALAN M. CHAMPAGNE 078291
Florence, AZ 85132
United States

Alan Champagne More News

Court documents released in the arrest of convicted murderer Alan Champagne show how police believe Champagne’s responsible for two bodies in a homemade coffin in a backyard in Phoenix.

Champagne, 42, was arrested yesterday on first-degree murder charges, a day after landscapers unearthed human remains in a wooden box, buried at the former home of Champagne’s mother.

According to court documents obtained by New Times, the case started with an anonymous tip in October 2011, as someone reported that a guy named “Mico” murdered two people in a Phoenix apartment.

“Mico” was actually found to be Champagne, who lived in the apartment where this alleged killing occurred.

By the time police heard about it, there was a new tenant in the apartment — which is just a couple blocks from where the bodies would be unearthed, near Indian School and 16th Street — who said that the maintenance man had done a lot of work on the place.

The maintenance man told the new tenant that the apartment “smelled horrible,” so the drywall and tile had been replaced.

Cops still managed to find some sort of blood evidence in a bedroom and some sort of other “fluid.”

“[The maintenance man] commented that fluids appeared to have leaked from inside apartment #1 into the storage locker . . . ” court documents state. “The fluid was still visible and had a greasy appearance to it.”

The maintenance man also told police he helped Champagne build a wooden box, which, unbeknownst to him, would become a coffin for two people.

Champagne said his mother’s home was going into foreclosure — which was true — but said he needed the wooden box to move car parts, which was not true.

Later in the investigation, police found a report in which Champagne was pulled over while driving and arrested on a misdemeanor warrant.

Inside the car, cops found a Social Security card belonging to a guy named Philmon Tapaha, as well as a purse, which sure didn’t belong to Champagne.

Police found out that Philmon Tapaha had been reported missing during the summer of 2011. Tapaha’s sister was the mother of two children she had with Champagne. In addition, Tapaha’s girlfriend Brandi Hoffner — whom Tapaha was last seen with — also had been reported missing around the same time.

In February of last year, police talked to Champagne’s baby-mama, who said her brother was probably upset with Champagne for cheating on her, but she didn’t have any information about an actual altercation.

Still, a couple of months later, Champagne became a suspect in an unrelated aggravated-assault case, and when police went to arrest him in March at his mother’s place — the same house where the bodies were dug up Wednesday — Champagne barricaded himself inside.

Champagne then started shooting at officers, police say, and he’s been in jail on attempted first-degree murder charges — and a variety of other charges — ever since.

Champagne was still a suspect in the murder case but never spoke to investigators about it. DNA evidence concluded that Philmon Tapaha was likely killed inside the apartment formerly occupied by Champagne.

Still, neither Tapaha’s nor his girlfriend’s body was ever found — until Tuesday.

Landscapers doing work for the new homeowner of the residence formerly owned by Champagne’s mom dug up the coffin with two “mummified” bodies.

The bodies are still with the medical examiner, but Champagne — who was released from prison in 2005 after serving 13 years for second-degree murder — was re-booked into jail on two first-degree murder charges

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/alan-champagnes-backyard-bodies-were-his-baby-mamas-brother-his-girlfriend-cops-say-6644467

Michael Carlson Arizona Death Row

Michael Carlson was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murders of a couple. According to court documents Michael Carlson would shoot and kill the couple, Rebecca Lou Lofton, 52, and Kenneth “KR” Alliman, 49, for disrespecting a friend of his. Following the murders Michael Carlson would burn the bodies. Michael Carlson was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Arizona Death Row Inmate List

Michael Carlson 2021 Information

ASPC Florence, Central Unit
PO Box 8200
MICHAEL J. CARLSON 176552
Florence, AZ 85132
United States

Michael Carlson More News

Texas man convicted of killing a Marana couple three years ago was sentenced to death Wednesday afternoon.

The sentence was imposed by the same Pima County jury that on Aug. 31 convicted Michael Carlson, 56, of first-degree murder in the 2009 deaths of Rebecca Lou Lofton, 52, and Kenneth “KR” Alliman, 49.

During closing arguments Monday, Deputy Pima County Attorney Nicol Green told jurors Carlson deserved the death penalty because he killed multiple people, has a past violent criminal history and was on parole at the time.

Green urged the jurors to take Carlson’s character into consideration when determining his fate. He threw the victims into the trash pits as though they were trash and reduced their remains to thousands of bone fragments, she said.

During his trial, prosecutors presented evidence Carlson shot the couple to death and burned their bodies in trash pits located on property owned by the Menden family in Marana.

Jurors were shown a television interview in which Carlson confessed to killing the couple because he believed they were disrespecting the Mendens. He also confessed in gruesome detail to killing eight other people, murders authorities determined never happened.

What kind of a person fancies himself a killer and matter-of-factly provides in-depth details of imagined slayings? Green asked the jurors.

The defense has tried to portray Carlson as a victim of a dysfunctional family and brutal Texas prison system, but Green suggested that he wasn’t a victim, but a manipulator.

Incidents of self-mutilation in the military and prison could have been attempts to get attention and not evidence of mental illness, Green said.

The few assaults Carlson was a victim of were relatively minor, and he didn’t report an alleged rape until after he was facing the possibility of going back to prison for violating his parole, Green said.

Carlson’s three brothers grew up in the same family and have led law-abiding, normal lives, Green said.

Defense attorney Harley Kurlander blasted Green’s closing argument, saying she was improperly appealing to the jury’s emotions. He said he lost track of the number of times Green said “trash” and said there was no reason for Green to show the jurors photos of the victims’ remains.

The death penalty should be reserved for the worst of the worst, and Carlson doesn’t qualify, Kurlander said.

Carlson suffered an abusive childhood that left him with mental health issues and yet the state wants to kill him, Kurlander said.

The state may make light of it, but Carlson has lived in the depths of hell, Kurlander said.

Kurlander reminded jurors a prison expert and forensic psychologist testified Carlson isn’t likely to be dangerous in prison. In fact, Carlson might be able to help other inmates; he has a history of volunteer work, he said.

The defense attorney also said the jurors could consider Carlson’s protective nature, desire to be part of a family and his expressed remorse over Lofton’s death as mitigating circumstances.

One of the doctors who examined Carlson said people who are treated poorly as children can become irrationally attached to those they feel they can trust, Kurlander said, and Carlson became attached to the Mendens.

After the death sentence was announced, Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Nichols met with the jurors and told them that at the same time Carlson confessed to killing the victims, he confessed to killing his sister, Maria Thoma, 51, in 2003. She was shot to death in Tucson.

The Pima County Attorney’s Office dismissed all of the charges in that case after Judge Christopher Browning threw out the taped interview because detectives violated his Miranda rights.

Jurors didn’t hear Carlson’s confession to detectives in the Alliman-Lofton case for the same reason.

https://tucson.com/news/local/crime/marana-couples-killer-gets-death-sentence/article_d9e63265-4743-557b-b790-f1aadc2462df.html

Jason Bush Arizona Death Row

Jason Bush was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murders of a man and his daughter. According to court documents Jason Bush, Shawna Forde and Albert Gaxiola were part of the Minutemen American Defense whose apparent purpose was to deal with illegal aliens however what happened on May 30, 2009 was a robbery. The group would storm into the victims home and in the process of the robbery would murder Raul Flores Jr. and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia Ylianna Flores. Brisenia Ylanna mother was also wounded during the attack. Jason Bush was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Shawna Forde was also sentenced to death.

Arizona Death Row Inmate List

Jason Bush 2021 Information

ASPC Eyman, Browning Unit
PO Box 3400
JASON E. BUSH 263227
Florence, AZ 85132
United States

Jason Bush More News

The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the guilty verdicts and death penalty of a man who took part in a pair of 2009 home invasion murders in Arivaca linked to a Minutemen border militia group.

Justice John Pelander, writing for the court, rejected a series of arguments presented by attorneys for Jason E. Bush that he did not get a fair trial.

Those contentions ranged from the procedures used in the pretrial questioning of potential jurors to the contention that jury did not properly consider his mental illness and troubled past in deciding to sentence him to death.

Pelander also said Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo did not err in refusing a request to move the trial out of the county due to pretrial publicity.

Pelander said the trial occurred far after the initial news stories and that the reporting was “largely factual.”

The court also said there was nothing wrong with Gina Gonzales, the wife and mother of the victims, from telling the jury considering the sentence the impact the crime has had on her life.

But the court split on the question of the death penalty.

Appellate Judge Lawrence Winthrop, sitting on the case because Justice John Lopez could not because he had formerly worked at the Attorney General’s Office, said he believes the death penalty violates a state constitutional provision against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Given the continued reports that demonstrate defendants may be sentenced to death because of jurors’ inherent bias, and studies that demonstrate the death penalty has no identifiable deterrent effect, the answer to the question of whether the cost of the death penalty outweighs the societal benefit is a resounding, ‘no,’ ‘’ he wrote.

According to prosecutors, Bush was part of a plan by Shawna Forde, founder of Minutemen American Defense, to rob and kill people she believed were drug smugglers to fund her organization.

The home invasion involved Bush, Albert Gaxiola and Forde. Evidence presented at trial showed that they killed Raul “Junior” Flores and 9-year-old daughter Brisenia. They also attempted to kill Gina but left after she managed to shoot Bush.

Forde was sentenced to death for the slayings. Gaxiola received two life sentences.

Separate from the question of Bush’s guilt, Pelander said Winthrop is off base in his arguments about the constitutionality of the death penalty.

Pelander said the Arizona constitutional provision is virtually identical to the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. And the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that amendment does not bar capital punishment

https://tucson.com/news/local/border-militiamans-convictions-death-sentences-upheld-in-arivaca-slayings/article_de0633dd-89f7-51ca-9e1a-25a2e91c7771.html

Jonathan Burns Arizona Death Row

Jonathan Burns was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of a woman. According to court documents Jonathan Burns would kidnap Jackie Hartman who would be sexually assaulted and murdered. Jonathan Burns would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Arizona Death Row Inmate List

Jonathan Burns 2021 Information

ASPC Florence, Central Unit
PO Box 8200
JOHNATHAN I. BURNS 144740
Florence, AZ 85132
United States

Jonathan Burns More News

Johnathan Burns was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of Jackie Hartman. Sometime in late 2006, Jackie met Burns at a Diamond Shamrock gas station in the east valley. On January 28, 2007 Jackie agreed to go on a date with Burns and her sister dropped her off at the same gas station. When her sister returned later that evening to pick her up, Jackie never showed. Her disappearance led to a nearly three-week search involving law enforcement, members of her family, and local volunteers. Burns was arrested the day after, when police found Jackie’s blood-stained and torn clothing in a dumpster near his home in Mesa. Jackie’s body was found on February 19, 2007. She had been shot twice in the head; Burns’ semen was found on her body and clothing. An autopsy revealed traces of a date-rape drug in Jackie’s system. A jury convicted Burns of 1st degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and misconduct involving weapons and subsequently sentenced him to death

Jonathan Burns More News

The man convicted in the 2007 murder of a Gilbert woman was sentenced to death in a Maricopa County Court this afternoon.

Jonathan Burns, 29, was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and misconduct with a weapon for the January 28, 2007, murder of Jackie Hartman. Today he learned he’ll pay for the crimes with his life.

Last week, the jury in the case was having “issues” in agreeing on a sentence for Burns. No mistrial was declared, and the jurors were instructed to continue deliberations, which they did this morning, and ultimately sentenced Burns to death.

Hartman was last seen by her sister, Randi, about 2 a.m. the night she was murdered. Randi had dropped her off for what was supposed to be a first date with Burns. It turned out to be a date with death.

The sisters were supposed to meet up again at 4:45 a.m., but Jackie never showed.

Police spoke with Burns, who said he’d had sex with Hartman and then dropped her off at home. However, he couldn’t explain where he was for about five hours on the morning of the murder.

Authorities were able to locate an area where Burns had used his cell phone the morning of the murder — in the desert near Fountain Hills. Police searched the area and about a month after she was first reported missing, a search team found Hartman’s body buried in the desert.

Another seemingly damning bit of evidence in the case was that Hartman’s clothes were found torn and in a trash can near Burns’ home.

Burns is a convicted felon who has already served a 7-year prison sentence for burglary and arson, and hatched a plan to escape from jail while awaiting trial.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/jonathan-burns-sentenced-to-death-for-murder-of-jackie-hartman-6635084

Eric Boyston Arizona Death Row

Eric Boyston was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for three murders. According to court documents Eric Boyston received a phone call that resulted in an argument. Boyston demanded his girlfriend to drive him over to the person’s home and when she refused Eric would attempt to shoot her. The woman attempted to run out of the car however Boyston would shoot her in the back leaving her paralyzed. Eric Boyston would drive to a family members home where he would shoot and kill his grandmother, Mary Boyston, his uncle, Alex Boyston, and family friend, Timothy Wright. Eric Boyston would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Arizona Death Row Inmate List

Eric Boyston 2021 Information

ASPC Eyman, Browning Unit
PO Box 3400
ERIC D. BOYSTON 155186
Florence, AZ 85132
United States

Eric Boyston More News

Boyston was sentenced to death for the murders of his grandmother, Mary Boyston; his uncle, Alex Boyston; and family friend, Timothy Wright. He was also convicted of the attempted murders of his girlfriend, Alexandria Kelly, and his great-aunt, Shirley Jones. On February 2, 2004 Alexandria and Boyston were running errands when Boyston received a call in which an argument ensued. Boyston demanded that Alexandria drive him to the location where the person he just argued with was at. After Alexandria refused to do so, Boyston shot at her and missed. She got out of the car and ran and Boyston shot her 3 times, which ultimately led to her being paralyzed. Boyston then went to his grandmother Mary’s house and shot and killed her and his uncle Alex. The apartment across from Mary’s belonged to Boyston’s great-aunt, Shirley Jones. Shirley looked out her window and saw Boyston outside Mary’s apartment and she asked him what he was doing. Boyston attacked her, shooting her in the back. Boyston then returned back to his grandmother’s apartment, where he fatally stabbed family friend, Timothy Wright. Police arrested Boyston about 10 hours later at another apartment complex.

Eric Boyston Other News

Authorities say a man convicted of killing his grandmother, uncle and a family friend at a Phoenix apartment complex in 2004 has been sentenced to death.

Prosecutors say a Maricopa County Superior Court jury gave 29-year-old Eric Boyston the death penalty Tuesday. He was convicted last December of three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Authorities say Boyston got into an argument with his girlfriend on Feb. 2, 2004, and she was wounded in the shooting spree at his grandmother’s apartment complex.

Killed was Alexander Boyston, Mary Boyston and Timothy Wright while one of Eric Boyston’s aunts was shot and wounded.

https://www.foxnews.com/story/man-gets-death-penalty-for-killing-3-in-arizona