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Thomas Kemp Arizona Execution

Thomas Kemp was executed by the State of Arizona for the kidnapping and murder of a college student. According to court documents Thomas Kemp and his accomplice would kidnap college student Hector Juarez who would later be robbed and murdered. Thomas Kemp accomplice Jeffrey Logan would later go to the police. Jeffrey Logan would be sentenced to life in prison and Thomas Kemp would be sentenced to death. Thomas Kemp would be executed by lethal injection on April 25 2012

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Arizona’s most notorious death row inmates past and present have incredible stories.

“I don’t show any mercy, and I am certainly not here to plead for mercy.” These are the words of Thomas Kemp at his clemency hearing. Kemp was a man with no regrets for taking life and no regrets for having his life taken

On July 11, 1992, college student Hector Juarez was awakened around 11:15 p.m. when his fiancée returned from work to their apartment in Tucson. Juarez was hungry and went to a fast food restaurant down the street. After Juarez had not returned for a while, his fiancée went looking for him, finding his car in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box. The car smelled of fast food and was unlocked, but Juarez was nowhere around.

Three days earlier, Kemp had met up with former prison inmate Jeffrey Logan, who recently escaped from a California “honor farm.” On July 11, the two went to a pawn shop where Logan bought a hand gun. Later that night, they saw an opportunity to get some quick cash when they saw Juarez in the restaurant parking lot and abducted him.

The pair forced Juarez to withdraw $200 from an ATM, and then drove him to the Silverbell Mine near Marana, where they stripped him of his clothes before shooting him twice in the head. They tried using Juarez’s ATM card again, but when it was refused they drove to Flagstaff, sold their vehicle, and used the money to buy another gun.

While in Flagstaff, they met a couple traveling from California to Kansas and kidnapped them, driving them to Durango, Colo. While in a motel there, Kemp forced the male victim to disrobe and sexually assaulted him. They forced the couple to continue driving with them to Denver, where the couple escaped and Logan left Kemp. Logan turned himself in to Denver police and told them of Juarez’s murder.

Logan assisted Tucson police in finding the body, and later that same day Kemp was found and arrested at a homeless shelter in Tucson.

After being told that Logan was already in custody and was cooperating with police, Kemp told officers, “I guess my life is over now.”

Logan was tried first, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

While waiting for his trial, Kemp told corrections officials that he was in protective custody because the person he killed was Hispanic, the Hispanics in the jail were after him because they thought the crime was racially motivated, and the whites would not protect him

Kemp was convicted on June 7, 1993 and at his sentencing, he told the judge that he should have killed Logan when he had the chance, but as far as killing Juarez he had no regrets. “The so-called victim was not an American citizen and, therefore, was beneath my contempt,” he then referred to Juarez using a racial slur. “If more of them ended up dead, the rest of them would soon learn to stay in Mexico where they belong.”

Kemp was sentenced to death on July 9, 1993.

Kemp refused to plead for mercy at his clemency hearing, telling the board, “I don’t show any mercy, and I am certainly not here to plead for mercy…I spit on the law and all those who serve it.”

Kemp was executed four years ago April 25, 2012. No one from his family or the victim’s family attended.

https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/death-row-diaries-thomas-kemp-shows-no-regret-in-killing-of-tucson-man

Robert Towery Arizona Execution

Robert Towery was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of a man during a home invasion. According to court documents Robert Towery and an accomplice would force their way into the victims home and proceeded to murder Mark Jones who Towery knew. Mark Jones was injected with battery acid and strangled to death. Robert Towery would be sentenced to death. His accomplice was under eighteen and was sentenced to life. Robert Towery would be executed by lethal injection on March 8 2012

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Robert Towery, a 47-year-old Mesa man who spent the last two decades of his life on death, was executed late this morning at the state prison in Florence.Towery’s last-minute appeals didn’t pass muster, and prison officials injected the inmate with the poisonous chemicals that killed him.
He was charged in the brutal 1991 killing of 69-year-old philanthropist Mark Jones, a Paradise Valley man known for providing dozens of University of Arizona students with scholarship funds.
Jones as we noted in a Valley Fever blog post yesterday, invited Towery–an acquaintance–and another man into his residence. The pair were there to rob Jones, and according to Towery’s accomplice, Towery also had designs on killing him.
Jones died of manual strangulation with a plastic tie, and Towery’s cohort, Randy Allen Barker, later told police (and a Maricopa County jury) that Towery had injected the victim with battery acid. Prosecutors never could definitively prove the latter, but they had more than enough evidence to win a conviction on first-degree murder and other charges.

In return for his testimony against Towery, prosecutors cut co-conspirator Barker a pretty sweet deal. Barker was released from prison in 2001 after serving about ten years.
As we wrote yesterday, Robert “Chewie” Towery, a violent criminal with a yen for meth, ad pulled himself together behind bars in recent years, and reconnected with family members, including his college-age son.
We corresponded with Towery in recent months, and he invited us to attend his execution, which he fully expected would occur as scheduled.
We declined, having no desire to watch the government stick a needle into a condemned man behind a glass retaining wall.
Our old colleague Mike Kiefer of the Arizona Republic reported that Towery’s last meal consisted of a porterhouse steak, baked potato with sour cream, asparagus, mushrooms, milk, Pepsi and apple pie a la mode.
If we still have a death penalty in place at this late date, and it is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst, Robert Towery had it coming to him.
He may not have died as the worst person around, but the vile and violent acts he perpetrated upon Mr. Jones put him in that category when it counted–when he chose to murder.
But, just saying, locking Towery up, throwing away the key, and letting him exist in that netherworld known as the Arizona State Prison until he died would have been just fine with us.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/robert-towery-executed-by-lethal-injection-in-florence-murdered-paradise-valley-philanthropist-in-91-6627696

Robert Moormann Arizona Execution

Robert Moormann was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of his mother. According to court documents Robert Moormann was serving a nine year to life prison sentence for kidnapping when he was given a three day furlough. During the furlough Robert Moormann would murder his adopted mother and dismember her body. Robert Moormann would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Robert Moormann would be executed by lethal injection on February 29, 2012

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Robert Moormann was in prison in Florence serving a sentence of 9-years to life for kidnapping.

In January of 1984, his adoptive mother Roberta traveled to Florence to see him during a 3-day furlough he was granted. They stayed at the Blue Mist Motel.

On the morning of Friday January 13, Moormann bought a buck knife, a steak knife and some food. He later went to a pizza place where he knew the owner and told the owner that he was on furlough visiting his mother and that she wasn’t feeling well.

Around 9 a.m., Moormann went to the motel desk and told them he didn’t want to be disturbed and asked that the maid not make up the room. He also asked for some disinfectant spray.

Roberta’s friend came by the motel later that day to drop off Roberta’s suitcase, but Moormann told her his mother was already gone, even though the friend saw Roberta’s purse in the room. Moormann asked the friend if she would throw away some garbage bags, but the suspicious friend refused his request.

Moormann continued throughout the day to try to get cooperation in disposing of the garbage bags from the motel owner and the pizza parlor owner saying they were filled with spoiled meat and animal parts. They all refused his request.

The suspicious pizza parlor owner contact Florence police who went to the motel room around 10:30 p.m. that night. They asked Moormann how his mother was, because they had heard that she was ill. Moormann told the police that she was feeling better and had actually left to vosit a woman around 6 p.m. He also told police he was concerned because he hadn’t heard from her since then.

The police ;later watched Moormann’s room; the man came out of the room and told officers that his mother still hadn’t returned and he was concerned because she was on medication.

Still looking to dispose of the body, Moormann contacted a lieutenant at the prison and told him that his cousin had dropped off some dog bones a couple of days earlier and that he needed to get rid of them since his mother was out visiting and that the dumpster at the motel was full.”

The lieutenant agreed to help and brought his truck over to the motel where a box was put in the bed of the truck.

The lieutenant was later contacted by police who told him that Moormann was acting suspiciously and his mother was missing. The lieutenant told them about the box and when they looked inside they saw what looked like human remains.

It was early the next morning when Moormann left the room to use a pay phone that the police moved in under orders not to allow Moormann back into the room. Moormann was asked to stay in the patrol car.

Soon other officers, once they had confirmed the bones were human, arrested Moormann.

After his arrest, Moormann made statements to police indicating an incestuous relationship. He said, “(he) lost his cool” when his mother made him “take his father’s place” and “do things he just couldn’t handle.” However, there was no physical evidence that anything sexual took place that night.

In the room police found blood stained bedding, floors and walls, and “Roberta’s brassiere hanging in the closet with five hundred dollars in cash safety-pinned to it.”

In trash dumpsters near the motel police found the rest of Roberta’s remains.

In Moormann’s prison cell, officials found bizarre writings and a will supposedly from Roberta that left all her assets to Moormann.

Incidentally in the woman’s real will, she had already left her estate to Moorman, but said he was incompetent to handle his affairs and left the money in a trust.

https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/death-row-diary-man-executed-for-killing-mom-while-on-furlough-from-prison

Robert Jones Arizona Execution

Robert Jones was executed by the State of Arizona for seven murders committed during armed robberies. According to court documents Robert Jones and Scott Nordstrom would murder seven people during two armed robberies. Both Robert Jones and Scott Nordstrom would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Scott Nordstrom remains on Arizona death row in 2021. Robert Jones would be executed by lethal injection on October 23, 2013

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Arizona Department of Corrections plans to execute the man convicted of gunning down six people in a pair of 1996 robberies this morning.

Robert Glen Jones was convicted in 1998 of shooting and killing six people in robberies at the Moon Smoke Shop on May 30, 1996 and the Firefighter’s Union Hall on June 13, 1996.

Robert Jones, 43, and Scott Nordstrom were found guilty of the murders in 1998 and sentenced to die for the crimes.

Arthur “Taco” Bell, 54; Judy Bell, 46; Maribeth Munn, 53; and Carol Lynn Noel, 50, were fatally shot during the union hall robbery.

Clarence Odell III, 47; and Thomas Hardman, 26, were killed in the Moon Smoke Shop.

“It’s overdue; it’s way overdue,” said Don Sink, a longtime friend of Arthur and Judy Bell.

Sink, 69, said he and Arthur Bell shared a passion for sprint and supermodified race cars that they built and raced at tracks across the Southwest.

He said the killings at the Firefighter’s Union Hall were especially senseless because of the peaceful and friendly nature of the victims, adding Arthur Bell would have gladly helped the killers carry the cash register to their truck if it was money they were after.

“He was the most easygoing person,” Sink said.

The mother-in-law of Moon Smoke Shop victim Odell also said the execution was too long delayed.

“He had just gone inside the door of the smoke shop when it happened. He didn’t deserve that,” said Donna Schoonbeck.

She said Odell left behind two children.

The 90-year-old Schoonbeck, who attended Jones’ 1998 murder trial, is on the list of 22 victim witnesses allowed to watch Jones death by injection at the state prison in Florence.

The separate trials of Jones and Nordstrom held the attention of the community because of the gruesome and unprovoked nature of the crimes.

In the Moon Smoke Shop killings, Jones and Nordstrom entered the store and Jones immediately shot Odell in the head.

The pair then held employees at gunpoint, demanding money from two cash registers in the store.

Nordstrom pursued Hardman, who worked at the smoke shop, into a back room, where he forced him to lie facedown on the floor and shot him in the back of the head.

Jones shot and injured another employee, who survived.

The killings at the union hall were considered even more brutal, with the gunmen essentially executing the unarmed victims

Robert Jones told the Bells and Munn to put their heads on the bar while Nordstrom took Noel into the back room, demanding she open a safe.

As the victims sat with their faces to the bar, Jones shot each in the back of the head with a 9 mm pistol.

When Noel could not open the safe, Nordstrom shot her in the back of the head with a .380-caliber handgun.

The gunmen fled with an estimated $1,300.

Throughout the trial and appeals, Jones maintained his innocence.

Evidence presented at trial, however, proved too great for his defense to overcome.

For example, testimony from acquaintances of Jones, whom he stayed with in the Phoenix area after the killings, said he boasted openly about the crimes.

Letters Robert Jones sent a former girlfriend while he was in Maricopa County Jail after an arrest for another robbery and murder show him directing her to provide an alibi.

In meticulous cursive handwriting, Jones laid out his alibi following with a veiled threat.

“Get that story in your head and stick to it,” he wrote. “You know my friends! I’ll make sure you’re taken care of if you help me.”

The most damning testimony likely came from Nordstrom’s brother, David Nordstrom, who contacted police with evidence Jones had committed the crimes.

David Nordstrom admitted to police that he drove the getaway car in the Moon Smoke Shop killing.

David Nordstrom eventually pleaded guilty to armed robbery and served less than four years in prison. Like Jones, Scott Nordstrom was convicted on six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He remains on death row.

Federal public defenders have argued that Jones had ineffective counsel at his trial and a now-deceased Pima County prosecutor withheld evidence. They still question David Nordstrom’s testimony.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to rehear Jones’ case or issue a stay by 10 a.m. today, Jones will become the 36th inmate executed by Arizona since 1992. He would be the second inmate put to death by the state in two weeks.

Robert Jones turned down a request for an interview in the weeks before the execution.

From Sink’s perspective, sad irony encompasses the entire case.

He said Arthur Bell, an auto mechanic, had repaired the truck the killers drove just weeks before the murders.

“The thing that’s really sad about the thing,” Sink said, “is that Judy (Bell) didn’t believe in the death penalty.”

https://tucson.com/news/local/crime/robert-jones-execution-set-for-10-a-m/article_a80de60f-6121-5ad2-9cd3-02e31e9f794d.html

Edward Schad Arizona Execution

Edward Schad was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of an elderly man in 1978. According to court documents Edward Schad would murder the man before stealing her vehicle and wallet. Edward Schad would be arrested a month later still in possession of the man’s vehicle. Edward Schad would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Edward Schad would be executed by lethal injection on October 8 2013

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The oldest man on Arizona’s death row was executed Wednesday morning after 35 years in custody.

Edward Harold Schad Jr., 71, was given a lethal dose of the pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Florence, Ariz.

Schad was sentenced to death for the 1978 murder of Lorimer Grove, 74, who was found dead in underbrush by the side of a road south of Prescott, Ariz. A month later, Schad was arrested in Salt Lake City; he had Grove’s Cadillac and his credit cards.

Schad met with his attorney, assistant federal defender Kelley Henry, Tuesday night and expressed his gratitude for kindness of the correctional officers who guarded him during the last 35 days of his life, a period called “death watch,” when the condemned prisoners are separated from the other inmates on death row

Wednesday morning, Schad met with his longtime spiritual adviser, a Lutheran pastor who administered last rites. The pastor told Henry that Schad was “doing well,” and had not yet heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had denied the final requests for a reprieve.

Schad was convicted twice of killing 74-year-old Lorimer “Leroy” Grove.

Grove was last seen leaving town pulling a trailer with his new Cadillac on the way to visit his sister in Washington state. He was found dead with a rope knotted around his neck on Aug. 9, 1978, south of Prescott.

Schad’s execution was Arizona’s 35th since 1992. His death leaves 121 people on the death row in the state, including two women.

Schad says he ended up on death row only because of a misunderstanding. He was a car thief and a forger, not a murderer, he told the clemency board.

His earlier second-degree murder conviction had been a case of mistaken identity, as well, he said.

The clemency board did not believe him; neither did the three juries that convicted him, nor a host of judges and justices right up to the U.S. Supreme Court over 34 years of appeals.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/09/arizona-death-penalty-execution/2953055/