All PRISONERS EXECUTED in May 2026 (US): Last Meals & Final Words
In this video, I’ll present a complete recap of every death row inmate executed during the month of May. We’ll take a look at their horrific crimes, the trials that led to their convictions, their final meals, their executions, and the last words they spoke before death. I feel like you were here to give me this date and be arrested for me having execution dates. That’s how I feel.
I’m not going to be executed, Mr. Roach. And I’m smiling, I’m happy because I’m going to be exonerated. Raymond Johnson State Oklahoma Raymond Eugene Johnson was born on March 26th, 1974 in Oklahoma City. And from a very young age, he began building an extensive criminal record marked by drugs and violence. His first killing occurred in 1995 when, at just 21 years old, he murdered Clarence Ray Oliver following an argument in which he shot him while Oliver was trying to flee in his vehicle.
Although he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter, he served only nine before being granted parole in 2005. Raymond arrived in Tulsa in 2005 hoping to start over and keep his past hidden from everyone. It was there that he met Brooke Whitaker while she was working at a restaurant. Brooke was a 22-year-old single mother of three, and over time, the two began a relationship.
The relationship moved quickly, and by the end of 2006, Johnson had already moved into Whitaker’s home where they lived together for several months. At first, Johnson treated Brooke’s children well and appeared to be a loving and kind person to everyone around him. During that time, Whitaker became pregnant with Johnson’s child, and the couple had a daughter named Kaya.
However, life together soon became troubled. Johnson abused Whitaker and and children, failed to keep a stable job and continued to be involved with drugs. The final straw was his constant infidelity. He even got another woman pregnant, which ultimately led Whitaker to end the relationship. Whitaker decided to ask him to leave the house and Johnson ended up living on the streets with no other option but to stay at a homeless shelter.
It was there that he began developing a deep hatred and resentment toward Whitaker. On the night of June 23rd, 2007 in Tulsa, Johnson went to the home on East Newton Street where his ex-girlfriend Brooke Whitaker lived. Once there, he remained outside the house waiting for her to return from her work shift during the early hours of the morning.
Whitaker’s older children usually stayed with their biological fathers so she could work, but baby Kaya stayed with her because she was still nursing and could not be left alone. When Whitaker finally arrived home, a heated argument broke out between the two inside the house. The verbal confrontation quickly escalated into physical violence.
According to court records, Johnson had already stalked the victim and threatened to kill her on multiple occasions before that night. In the middle of the altercation, Johnson grabbed a metal claw hammer that was inside the home and began striking Whitaker with extreme force. The attack was brutal and focused directly on the woman’s head leaving her with virtually no chance to defend herself against the ferocity and speed of the initial blows delivered by the attacker.
Despite the catastrophic nature of her head injuries, Brooke Whitaker did not die immediately after the hammer attack. Prosecutors later determined that Johnson kept her in a state of agony and physical torture for approximately 6 hours. A prolonged period during which the victim remained conscious despite her critical condition.
During those 6 hours of agony, Whitaker used what little strength she had left to desperately beg for her life and even more urgently for the life of her daughter. Fully aware of the imminent danger and suffering unimaginable pain, she pleaded with Johnson to stop the assault and show mercy to baby Kaya.
Among her pleas, Whitaker begged Johnson to call 911 so she could receive medical assistance or at the very least allow her mother to come pick up the baby. She also pleaded with him to think about her other three children who fortunately were not inside the home at the time. Johnson ignored every one of Whitaker’s pleas and chose to escalate the crime into an act of total destruction.
He left the house and went to a tool shed located in the backyard to retrieve a gasoline can, then returned inside with a deliberate intention of setting the home on fire in order to erase evidence of the attack. With the accelerant in his possession, Johnson proceeded to pour gasoline over Whitaker’s body throughout several areas of the house and fatally inside the bedroom where baby Kaya was sleeping in her crib.
To ignite the flames, Johnson set a kitchen towel on fire and threw it directly onto Whitaker’s wounded body. Immediately afterward, the attacker fled the scene as the fire rapidly spread through the wooden structure, leaving both mother and daughter trapped inside the flames while they were still alive. Tulsa firefighters were alerted to the blaze at 11:11 a.m.
and upon entering the home engulfed in thick smoke, they discovered a devastating scene. Near the entrance, they found the body of baby Kaya and in another room, they discovered Brooke Whitaker beneath her daughter’s bed in what appeared to have been a final and desperate attempt to save her. Investigators determined that Whitaker managed to open the bedroom door, remove the baby from her crib, and try to escape with her.
But, tragically, neither of them survived the fire. The autopsy results confirmed that Whitaker died at the hospital from a combination of blunt force head trauma and smoke inhalation. However, it was determined that baby Kaya died exclusively from extreme thermal burns. Raymond Eugene Johnson was arrested the day after the murders.
At the time of his arrest, police recovered a garbage bag from a dumpster containing boots, blood-stained clothing, Whitaker’s wallet with her driver’s license inside, and the claw hammer used in the attack. The trial of Raymond Eugene Johnson officially began in June 2009 in Tulsa County. After reviewing the forensic evidence and hearing testimony from first responders, a jury found him guilty on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Brooke Whitaker and her daughter Kaya, as well as one count of first-degree arson, ultimately
sentencing him to death. During his time on death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Johnson claimed to have undergone a radical transformation, becoming an active member of the Church of the Brethren in Indiana. His attorney stated that he became a role model for other inmates, leading religious services and writing poems and spiritual devotionals.
On April 8th, 2026, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously, 5 to 0, to reject Raymond Eugene Johnson’s clemency request. With that decision, his execution by lethal injection was officially scheduled for May 14th, 2026. Johnson woke up today at 6:00 a.m. and received visits from one of his sons and a spiritual adviser.
He received his last meal a day before the execution. For it, he requested a combo consisting of 12 boneless chicken pieces, a half liter of gizzards, an order of fried pickles, four packets of hot sauce, and four packets of ranch dressing. Raymond Eugene Johnson, 52, was transferred to the execution chamber at 9:30 a.m.
and was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. this Thursday, May 14th, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. According to official reports, he showed no signs of pain or suffering during the execution. There were no reports of final words at the time of his execution, but his last known statement during a hearing was, “I apologize. No excuses, no justifications, a sincere apology.
And to know it’s sincere, look at my actions. Look at my life. Look at how I’ve changed. I’m living a life full of remorse. I’m living it.” Edward Lee Busby. State, Texas. On the morning of January 30th, 2004, a Friday, 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane, a respected retired professor from Texas Christian University, left her home to do her weekly grocery shopping at a Tom Thumb Supermarket located near her residence in Fort Worth.
As she did every week, she calmly arrived at the parking lot, parked her car, and prepared to enter the store, completely unaware that within minutes she would become the victim of a brutal kidnapping. At that moment, a man approached the vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and ordered her to move into the passenger seat while he took control of the car.
According to the investigation, a woman named Kathleen Latimer owed a large amount of money to a drug dealer and was desperate to leave Fort Worth as quickly as possible. She needed money and above all, a vehicle to escape. A year earlier in 2003, Kathleen had met a man named Edward Lee Busby while staying at a hotel.
Busby, who was 30 years old, had dropped out of school in the 10th grade and occasionally worked as a cook. After meeting, the two began a relationship heavily marked by constant drug use. That morning, January 30th, Kathleen realized that her problems connected to drug trafficking were becoming increasingly dangerous and she decided she had to leave the city immediately.
She and Busby met with an acquaintance who supposedly was going to take them to someone willing to lend them a car, but before that, they stopped at the Tom Thumb Supermarket. According to Kathleen Latimer’s account, Edward Busby had gone inside the supermarket while she remained outside in the acquaintance’s vehicle that had brought them there.
However, after waiting several minutes, the driver apparently became frustrated with the situation, ordered Kathleen out of the car, and drove away, abandoning them there. Kathleen claimed she began crying after realizing they were once again stranded without transportation, so she entered the store to look for Busby and tell him what had happened.
According to her testimony, Busby reacted furiously, stormed out of the supermarket kicking the door open, and at that exact moment, Laura Lee Crane was arriving in the parking lot and parking her vehicle. Desperate to obtain a car to flee the city, Edward Busby and Kathleen Latimer decided to kidnap 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane.
Busby opened the car door and forced Laura to move into the passenger seat while he took the wheel. Despite the terrifying situation, Laura remained surprisingly calm during the first few minutes. According to Kathleen Latimer, she even acted kindly when she saw Kathleen get into the vehicle.
Moments later, Laura looked directly at Edward Busby and asked him a question that would forever remain tied to the case. “What would your mother say if she knew what you were doing?” With Kathleen sitting in the backseat and Laura beside him, Busby began driving out of Fort Worth. Shortly afterward, they stopped at a convenience store where Busby handed Kathleen Laura Crane’s bank card and ordered her to withdraw as much money as possible.
Later during the drive, they stopped behind an abandoned house and forced Laura into the trunk of the car. At some point during the trip, Edward Busby wrapped approximately 7 m of duct tape around the elderly woman’s face, completely covering both her mouth and nose. They then crossed into the state of Oklahoma where they ultimately abandoned her body.
Two days after the kidnapping, on Sunday, February 1st, Busby and Kathleen Latimer were driving around Oklahoma looking to buy crack cocaine while still using Laura Crane’s stolen vehicle. That was when a police officer pulled them over for a traffic violation. After checking the vehicle information and discovering that it belonged to a woman reported missing in Texas, both were immediately arrested and questioned by authorities.
Laura Crane’s body was later discovered at the bottom of an embankment near a service road off Interstate 35 close to Davis, Oklahoma. The autopsy revealed that she died from asphyxiation caused by the massive amount of duct tape wrapped around her head and face, completely blocking her ability to breathe. Edward Lee Busby Jr.
went to trial approximately 2 years later in November 2005. On November 11th, he was found guilty and just 6 days later on November 17th, 2005, he was officially sentenced to death. Kathleen Latimer was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. According to records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, she will become eligible for parole on January 30th, 2034.
Edward Lee Busby Jr. meanwhile was sentenced to death and scheduled to be executed in Texas on May 14th. That day, Edward Busby woke up around 5:00 in the morning. He showered and received several visitors, although authorities never revealed the identities of the people who came to see him during his final hours.
Later at 6:00 p.m., he was authorized to be transferred to the execution chamber at the Huntsville unit in Texas. Once he was strapped onto the execution gurney, the warden asked whether he wished to make any final statement before the procedure began. It was then that Busby said the following. Sir, ma’am, I am so sorry.
I ask that you please please don’t hate me and that you can find it in your heart to forgive me for the part that I played in what happened to her. Ms. Crane was a lovely woman. I never meant anything bad to happen to her. I am so sorry. I am so so sorry, but I fell asleep and I don’t know what happened. Please forgive me.
Please, if not for me, for yourself. Because the Father said, if we don’t forgive those who wrong us, he will not forgive us. And I know that you are angry. I know you’re angry and I’m sorry. I’m not happy about what happened. I’ve hurt your family. I’ve hurt my family. And I wish I could take it all back. With all my heart, I wish I could take it back.
My sister has to live without me now to become a victim. I had no right to even get in that car, but I will take the blame. I will take the blame if it will help. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Sorry. Please forgive me. Please don’t hate me. Please find it in your heart to forgive me, for I know Jesus loves you like he loved me. He loves us all.
He wants us all to turn to him, to surrender our lives. I surrendered my life to him, my father God. I have changed my life. I just ask that you please don’t hate me. Please, sir. Please, please forgive me. Sis, I love you, man. Please surrender your life to God and change. Please find you a good church.
Surrender your life to God and live for God. That is the only way we don’t have to follow the church, for Jesus said, “Follow me.” Pick up your cross and follow him like I did. I had at least 10 years of following God and then a good 3 years of surrendering. I surrendered my life to God, but I’m here now because this is the will of God, and I’m going home to be with Jesus. I will see you on the other side.
Glory be the God. All praises be to my father God. I’m ready, Warden. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began to flow, Busby took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and gasped. Shortly afterward, he began snoring, with the sounds gradually becoming softer until all physical movement ceased within approximately 40 seconds.
He remained motionless on the execution gurney and was officially pronounced dead 38 minutes later at 8:11 p.m. Tony Caruthers, state Tennessee. On February 24th, 1994, Memphis news outlets reported the mysterious disappearance of three people in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the victims was a drug dealer named Marcellus Anderson, 21 years old, who was known for always wearing expensive jewelry, including a large diamond ring, and for carrying large amounts of cash.
The second victim was his mother, Lois Anderson, 43 years old, an innocent woman who had nothing to do with what happened. The third victim was Frederick Tucker, a friend of Marcelos, who was only 17 years old. A week after the disappearance on March 3rd, 1994, the bodies were found buried inside a grave in a Memphis cemetery.
However, the story really began about 5 months earlier with Tony Caruthers. Tony Caruthers was born around 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Raised by his single mother alongside his siblings, he grew up in an environment marked by crime. From a very young age, he had problems with the law.
Beginning at age 14, he moved in and out of juvenile detention centers for minor crimes, drug addiction, and episodes of violent and manic behavior. In September 1993, Tony Caruthers was serving time at the Mark Luttrell Reception Center in Memphis, where he was assigned to a work crew at the West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery. There, he took part in burials and grave preparation, an experience that, according to several testimonies, would end up influencing his thoughts in a chilling way.
It was there that he became obsessed with the idea that a cemetery was the perfect place to dispose of a body without raising suspicion. According to later statements, Caruthers constantly talked about that idea with another inmate, James Montgomery. Over time, those conversations turned into something much darker. The two began planning the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of a Memphis drug dealer named Marcelos Anderson once they regained their freedom.
The most disturbing part of all was that Tony Caruthers and Marcelos Anderson had a close relationship. In fact, when Caruthers was released from prison in November 1993, it was Marcelos himself who came to pick him up from jail. After that, the two continued spending time together along with other friends, never imagining that behind that friendship a deadly plan was already taking shape.
At this point, something interesting happened. An inmate who had shared prison time with Tony and James had overheard the entire conversation. His name was Charles Ray Smith, and he regained his freedom just 1 month later. When Smith was released from prison, he decided to warn Marcelos about what he had heard behind bars.
He told him that Tony Caruthers and James Montgomery were planning to rob him of his money and drugs, and even kill him once James got out of prison. However, for some reason, Marcelos did not take the warning seriously. He fully trusted Tony Caruthers. James Montgomery was finally released in January 1994, and shortly afterward he reunited with Tony to put the plan they had been preparing into motion.
On February 24th, 1994, at around 4:30 in the afternoon, Marcelos was driving a white Jeep alongside his friend Frederick Tucker, who was 17 years old. Inside the vehicle were also James Montgomery and his brother Jonathan Montgomery. It is important that James and Tony Caruthers had spent months planning the kidnapping and murder of Marcelos.
However, at that moment, Tony had still not been seen inside the vehicle. The four men then went to the home of a cousin of the Montgomery brothers. Once inside the house, everyone went down to the basement. To this day, it is not known exactly what happened there, but it is believed that Marcelos and Frederick were tortured in order to force them to reveal where they were hiding their money.
Eventually, the men left the house and both Frederick and Marcelos were seen with their hands tied behind their backs. Shortly afterward, they headed to Marcelos’s home since he had finally confessed where he was keeping part of his money. In the attic of the house, he had hidden around $200,000 in cash. When they arrived at the house, Lois Anderson, Marcelos’s mother, was there.
After seeing several strangers with her son tied up, she began confronting them and demanding answers. However, the men also overpowered her, tied her hands, and forced her into the Jeep. That night, Marcelos Anderson, his mother, Lois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker were taken to another location where the real horror began.
Marcelos was shot in the neck. The bullet passed through his throat and struck his spinal cord. Later, the medical examiner explained that the wound likely left him paralyzed, although he still could have survived if he had received medical attention in time. In other words, the gunshot was not what ultimately killed him.
Frederick Tucker, only 17 years old, was also shot multiple times. Although his injuries were not fatal either, he was left severely incapacitated. He too was still alive after being shot. When Lois Anderson’s body was found, she had a long red stocking wrapped around her neck, indicating that someone had tried to strangle her.
However, that was not the direct cause of her death either. The three victims were taken to Rose Hill Cemetery, located on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis. There, a grave had just been prepared for the burial the following day of a woman named Dorothy Daniels. It was inside that small space that Marcelos Anderson, his mother, Lois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker were thrown in and stacked on top of one another.
Afterward, the heavy burial vault was placed back over them. All three victims were still alive. However, they were too injured, incapacitated, or unconscious to escape or call for help. The following day, funeral services for Dorothy Daniels were held. Her casket was brought to the grave and lowered into the same vault where, beneath it, the bodies of the other three victims were already hidden.
Dorothy’s family and friends surrounded the ceremony while a minister delivered farewell words for the deceased, never suspecting that beneath the casket were three other bodies buried in secret. Going back a few hours after the three victims had been shot, strangled, and thrown into the grave, another key event took place in the investigation.
Jonathan Montgomery, the brother of James Montgomery, called a childhood friend named Chris Heinz. Later, Heinz would testify in court that Jonathan contacted him around 8:45 that night and sounded extremely excited. According to his testimony, Jonathan told him they had just gotten $200,000. Hours later, at around 2:40 in the morning, the white Jeep Cherokee that Marcelos Anderson had borrowed from his cousin, Michael Harris, was found completely burned in the state of Mississippi.
The investigation moved quickly. Detectives were able to reconstruct the final hours of Marcelos Anderson and determine who had been seen with him before he disappeared. One of the main suspects was Jonathan Montgomery. According to investigators, Jonathan acted evasively during questioning. His answers seemed deceptive and he constantly changed his version of events, which only increased suspicions about his involvement in the crime.
Eventually, after being pressured by authorities, Jonathan Montgomery agreed to lead investigators to the location where the bodies were hidden, Rose Hill Cemetery on Elvis Presley Boulevard. On March 3rd, 1994, authorities began excavating the grave prepared for Dorothy Daniels. They first removed the casket and then the heavy burial vault resting above it.
Beneath it, at the bottom of the grave, they discovered the bodies of Marcellus Anderson, Lois Anderson, and Frederick Tucker. Shortly after the discovery of the bodies buried in the cemetery, Tony Caruthers and brothers James and Jonathan Montgomery were arrested and formally charged with the triple murder.
The trial began approximately 2 years later in 1996. However, shortly before the judicial process started, Jonathan Montgomery was found dead in his cell after taking his own life. Because of this, only Tony Caruthers and James Montgomery stood trial, with both men being prosecuted together. The case suffered numerous delays because Tony Caruthers constantly fired or pushed away the attorneys assigned to defend him.
The judge eventually gave him two options, accept one final court-appointed lawyer or represent himself during the trial. Tony Caruthers chose to act as his own attorney. At the end of the trial, both Tony Caruthers and James Montgomery were found guilty and sentenced to death. However, years later, an unexpected twist occurred in James Montgomery’s case.
After a successful appeal, the courts ruled that he and Caruthers should never have been tried together. The main reason was that Tony Caruthers had an extensive criminal history that was presented to the jury, something that may have unfairly prejudiced Montgomery, who did not have such a serious record. The court agreed and overturned James Montgomery’s conviction.
Instead of holding a new trial, prosecutors negotiated a deal with him. In 2006, Montgomery ultimately pleaded guilty to lesser charges related to second-degree murder and received a 27-year prison sentence. Thanks to the time he had already served, he was released in 2015 and is currently a free man. In my personal opinion, James was just as guilty as Tony.
Tony Carruthers, on the other hand, continued maintaining his innocence until the very end and remained on Tennessee’s death row. Finally, after spending more than 30 years awaiting execution, authorities scheduled his execution for May 21st, 2026. But something unexpected happened that day. Tony woke up at 5:00 a.m.
expecting to be executed. He showered, received visitors, and even ate his final meal. However, once he was transferred to the execution chamber, the procedure quickly turned into chaos. For more than 2 hours, the execution team repeatedly attempted to insert an IV line to administer the lethal injection cocktail, but they were unable to do so.
It was later believed that Tony may have been severely dehydrated, making it extremely difficult to locate a usable vein. Witnesses outside the chamber reported hearing what sounded like groans coming through a gap beneath the door connecting the two rooms. According to officials, after failing to establish a central line, the medical team eventually accessed a vein near his right shoulder.
But before the execution could proceed, the warden received a phone call and announced that the execution had been canceled. As a result, Tony’s execution was postponed for another year. Richard Knight State: Florida Richard Knight was born in Jamaica and arrived in the United States in 1998. Shortly after entering the country, he decided to remain there illegally and soon became involved in drugs and robberies.
Before the crime that would ultimately send him to death row, Knight was already facing serious accusations, including indecent sexual assault against a 16-year-old girl and physical assault against a 12-year-old child. In June of 2000, Knight was going through a desperate situation. He had no job, no money, and nowhere to live.
That was when he remembered his cousin, Hans Mullins, who lived in Coral Springs in Broward County with his girlfriend, Odessia Stevens, a 24-year-old woman. The couple had a 4-year-old daughter named Hennessy Mullins, and Odessia was also 6 weeks pregnant at the time of the events. Odessia Stevens never liked the idea of Richard Knight staying in the apartment.
Knight had no job and depended financially on the couple, a situation that constantly caused tension and arguments, especially between him and Odessia. On the night of June 27th, 2000, Hans Mullins was at work. At approximately 9:00 p.m., he spoke with Odessia on the phone, and she told him that she was getting ready for bed and that Richard Knight was still inside the apartment.
Odessia felt uncomfortable with Knight being in the home, especially because her young daughter was there, and she herself was 6 weeks pregnant. Determined to put an end to the situation, she went to tell him that it was time for him to leave. That was when a heated verbal argument broke out between the two.
Without warning and in a brutal and merciless manner, Richard Knight grabbed a knife and lunged at Odessia, violently attacking her. Little Hennessy, after seeing Knight pull out a knife to attack her mother, reacted instinctively. In an act of love and protection at such a young age, the little girl threw herself at him in an attempt to defend Odessia.
Knight stabbed her multiple times, taking her life. After the attack on the child, Odessia tried to defend herself in the kitchen by attempting to grab another knife. A struggle broke out between them there, ending when Knight overpowered her and repeatedly stabbed her. While all of this was happening, a neighbor living on the floor above began hearing loud banging noises, followed by the desperate screams of a woman and a small child.
Alarmed by what he was hearing, he called 911 at 12:21 a.m. When Officer Vincent Sachs arrived at the building just 8 minutes later, screams could still be heard coming from the apartment. The officer observed lights on in the master bedroom and hallway. He also noticed that a window in another room was slightly open.
After knocking on the door several times without receiving an answer, the officer walked around the building. At that moment, he noticed that all the lights inside the apartment had been turned off and that the window, which had previously been only slightly open, was now fully open with the curtains hanging outward, indicating that someone had escaped from the apartment.
Shining his flashlight inside, the officer observed blood in the dining room and in the master bedroom. Shortly afterward, he found little Hennessey Mullins curled up in a fetal position beside a closet door. Finally, upon entering the apartment, he discovered the body of Odessia Stevens in the living room.
A short time later, another officer spotted Richard Knight hiding near some bushes, approximately 100 m from the building. When she approached him, she noticed scratches on his chest, fresh wounds on his hands, and blood stains on his shirt. Although he was wearing normal clothes and athletic shoes, Knight claimed that he had been out jogging.
He also stated that he lived in the apartment, but that he did not have a key and had not entered the residence for some time. Less than an hour after the attack, Richard Knight was arrested practically with blood still on his hands. Inside the apartment, investigators recovered several blood-stained knives, the weapons used to murder both Odessia Stevens and little Hennessey.
Because Odessia was pregnant, the crime ultimately claimed three lives. Both victims had been stabbed multiple times. Investigators also found skin cells underneath Odessia’s fingernails, evidence that she had tried to defend herself by viciously scratching her attacker. Richard Andrew Knight, Jr.
was formally charged on August 15th, 2001. The evidence against him was overwhelming. However, the trial did not begin until 2006. Ultimately, the jury found him guilty, and in March 2007, he was sentenced to death. During nearly 20 years on death row, Knight filed multiple appeals claiming that he was innocent. However, amid the wave of executions scheduled in Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis, his execution was set for May 21st, 2026.
The final 24 hours of Richard Knight were quiet and uneventful. He woke up at 5:00 a.m., showered, and spent the day alone. No relatives or visitors accompanied him during his final hours. When prison staff informed him that he could receive his last meal, Knight refused it. He also declined the regular prison meal and rejected the offer of having a spiritual advisor present for comfort during his final moments.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., Knight was transferred to the execution chamber. The curtain to the chamber was raised promptly at 6:00 p.m., the scheduled time of the execution. Knight was already strapped to the gurney with his arms extended and an intravenous line in place. When the warden asked if he wished to make a final statement, Knight replied, “I want to give thanks to Yahweh, the most high.
” The execution began immediately afterward. Knight closed his eyes and barely moved as the drugs took effect. After about 10 minutes, a physician entered the chamber and pronounced him dead. Richard Knight, 47, was officially declared dead at 6:13 p.m. after receiving a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starkey.
Leroy Dean McGill State: Arizona 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 that 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 Banta 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 victim’s 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 believed 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 Sean 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, Nobabanza uh Jack Yates, Jeffrey Yule all the victims’ names to be known as well.
Um throughout this process reporting in anticipation of witnessing this execution and 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 not 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 another overhead view of the gurney. This At this point, Mr. McGill had not entered the room. He was let 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 opened.
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 was 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. 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 to those IVs on each arm. At one point he did look over to the right at all of us in attendance. He sort of 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, Leurena 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. But 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 for my observations. After that, there was multiple minutes of just silence. Nobody, of course, saying anything and no reaction whatsoever from Leurena 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 wheeled the rest of him out.
Any questions?
