Arizona has just carried out its first execution of 2026. After spending more than a decade on death row, Leroy Dean McGill was finally executed by lethal injection, closing one of the most disturbing murder cases in the state’s  history. Leroy Dean McGill was born on February 22nd, 1963.

 From an early age, he lived a life marked by poverty and instability. He received very little education and built up a long criminal record involving armed robbery and other crimes. In early 2002, 39-year-old Leroy Dean McGill and his girlfriend, Johna Hardesty, were living in a duplex owned by a man named Jack Yates in the Sunny Slope area of North Phoenix, Arizona.

The rent was extremely cheap, which was one of the few reasons the people living there could afford it. Besides McGill and Johna, there was also another family living in the duplex, including a couple and their two young daughters. Another pair living there was 20-year-old Charles Perez and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Nova Marie Banta.

The duplex only had one bedroom. The owner, Jack Yates, was the only person who actually slept in the bedroom. According to reports, everyone else slept around the living room area, and some even used parts of the kitchen as sleeping spaces. In total, there were six other adults along with Jack Yates and the two children, all crowded into that tiny one-bedroom duplex.

Far too many people were living inside one small apartment, creating an environment that was chaotic and completely overcrowded. Charles Perez, a Mexican immigrant, sold marijuana inside the duplex to some of the other residents, including Leroy McGill. Charles also owned a shotgun that he kept hidden somewhere in the apartment.

According to reports, McGill constantly talked about the shotgun and seemed fascinated by it. Then one day, the shotgun suddenly disappeared. Charles had no doubt about who had taken it. He believed Leroy McGill had stolen the weapon. Charles spoke with the duplex owner, Jack Yates, and together they decided to evict McGill and Jonah from the apartment.

  After being kicked out, McGill and Jonah were basically homeless and spent several days sleeping on the streets. A few days later, however, they were temporarily allowed to stay in another duplex just a few doors away. When Leroy McGill learned that he had been evicted because people believed he stole the shotgun, he became furious with Charles.

Around 3:30 in the morning, McGill walked back to Jack Yates’s duplex while most of the people inside were still awake. It was the father of the two little girls who answered the door after McGill knocked. According to testimony, Leroy McGill told the father that he needed to get his wife and daughters out of the house because he was about to go inside to teach Charles Perez and Nova Banta a lesson.

The father agreed, grabbed his wife and daughters,  and left the duplex. But before leaving, he begged McGill not to hurt the owner, Jack Yates. McGill apparently agreed. Moments later, Leroy McGill approached Charles Perez and Nova Banta, who were sitting side by side on a couch. McGill was carrying a cup filled with gasoline.

 He then told them, “You shouldn’t be talking about me behind my back.” What happened next was an act of extreme brutality. Just as Charles and Nova were about to respond, McGill threw the gasoline directly onto them and immediately lit a match, tossing it at them as well. Within seconds, both victims were completely engulfed in flames.

Charles and Nova ran out of the duplex screaming in agony while their bodies  burned. The fire quickly spread throughout the residence. According to reports, Jack Yates managed to escape unharmed. After getting outside, he saw Nova completely on fire and used a blanket in an attempt to put out the flames covering her body.

By the time firefighters arrived, both duplexes were completely engulfed in flames. Paramedics found Charles Perez and Nova Bonita still alive and rushed them to the hospital. Both victims had suffered third-degree burns over more than 75% of their  bodies. While at the hospital, Charles continued screaming in pain before dying the following day on July 14th, 2002.

Nova was placed into a medically induced coma. She survived and around 2 years later testified during Leroy McGill’s trial. Investigators later learned that up until the time of his arrest, Leroy McGill bragged to people about what he had done. He even explained how he mixed pieces of Styrofoam into the gasoline so the fire would stick to the victims’ bodies longer and cause them even more pain.

To this day, the missing shotgun has never been recovered. Leroy McGill always insisted that he never stole it. Because the weapon was never found, nobody ever discovered who actually took it. Some believe it may have been the duplex owner or even Charles himself as an excuse to remove McGill from the apartment, while others suspected the father of the family who lived there.

The trial began in 2004. During the proceedings, Leroy McGill accepted responsibility for the charges and on November 10th, 2004, he was officially sentenced to death. McGill spent more than a decade on death row filing appeals in an effort to stop his execution until authorities finally scheduled his execution for May 20th, 2026.

>> Good morning. My name is Shawn Rice. I am a television journalist with 12 News. Uh this morning I just wanted to start by saying as much as the name Leroy McGill will be spoken this morning, um I also want the name Charles Perez, Nova Bantah, uh Jack Yates, Jeffrey Yule, all the victims’ names to be known as well.

Um throughout this process reporting in anticipation of witnessing his execution, I had a chance to speak with the now retired homicide detective of Phoenix Police, uh Tommy Kulessa, who helped put um Leroy McGill behind bars. And one quote that he had that stuck with me before I give my observations is um throughout the last 22 years on death row, Leroy McGill has had the opportunity to speak for himself, use his own voice.

Charles Perez has not. And so that’s why he worked  as hard as he did to put um Leroy McGill behind bars. So this process started for me at 9:55, we were loaded into a car in transport to um the building where this execution was carried out. At 9:58, we were let in. When you enter this building, you It’s a very small building.

Um there’s three rows of bench-style seating, all black seating. Uh that’s where we sat. To the right, you see a big panel of glass with black curtains uh behind it. In each corner, there is big black um big, but uh television screens uh that when you first walk in could see an overhead view of the gurney on the right TV.

 There’s one in the middle that showed all of the syringes laid out on what appeared to be a table, and then  the left TV had um um another overhead view of the gurney. This At this point, Mr. McGill had not entered the room. He was led in at 10:01. Uh he immediately approached the gurney, laid down with no emotion.

Um 10:02 uh we we spent multiple minutes waiting before the curtains were open. At this point, we could only see him through the monitors. At 10:04 is when the curtains opened. We’ve what I could appear would see throughout multiple minutes was him just taking deep breaths in and out. Um Not through his mouth, through his nose, but you could see his abdomen uh coming up and down through those deep breaths.

You see four workers, all dressed in white, Department of Corrections employees. Um  you couldn’t see their identities. They were completely covered. The only thing you could see was their eyes. Uh all dressed in all white, as McGill was dressed in all white himself. >> [snorts] >> They spent multiple minutes, maybe 1 or 2 minutes, approaching his right and left arms, looking for a suitable vein to insert the IVs.

Um that process went swimmingly. I didn’t see any issue at all >>  >> um finding a vein on either arm. They then spent multiple minutes hooking him up, so those IVs on each arm. At one point, he did look over to the right at all of us in attendance. He first scanned the room, and then nodded  to people who were seated directly behind me.

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect those may be family members of his. Several minutes later, he then uttered when asked if he had last words, “Thank Thank you everyone for being so accommodating and nice.” as the director said, and I did hear “I’m going home soon” as well. A priest then entered, what I suspect was a priest, uh entered the room, stood right at his head, and offered a blessing.

 It started It was a little bit hard to hear for me in the room, but it started as what I know as the Lord’s Prayer. Started saying the Lord is my shepherd. Um he offered remiss- remission to all of McGill’s sins. And at the end of that prayer, Leroy McGill said, quote, “Amen.” At 10:12, I witnessed all of the syringes start to be pushed in.

Uh I did see four and then another four. Throughout this other pro- throughout this process, the the four on the left did not have to be used according to my uh witness. Throughout the process, it appeared painless. Uh the only thing we witnessed was those long uh deep breaths as the um lethal injection was carried out.

And and then that snoring sound. Uh I would say this went on for maybe 30 seconds to a minute uh from my observations. After that, there was multiple minutes of just silence. Nobody, of course, saying anything and no reaction whatsoever from Leroy McGill. The only thing I witnessed from 10:16 to the time of death at 10:26 was a slight um twitching on the right side of his head, and I witnessed that at 10:22.

Didn’t appear to be anything major, uh but just you could see the skin on the right side of his head start to move a little bit. That was at 10:22, so 4 minutes before time of death at 10:26. Um that was Somebody came in, read that 10:26 was the time of death, the curtains closed, and minutes later we were escorted out.

Any questions?