UMVA has learned that a dramatic and devastating crime has led to the execution of a 53-year-old Arizona man, marking the first of three executions scheduled this week in the U.S.
The man, Leroy Dean McGill, was convicted of murdering James Perez in a brutal 2002 attack at an apartment in north Phoenix, where he doused Perez and Perez's girlfriend, Nova Banta, with gasoline before setting them on fire. Banta survived the horrific attack, but Perez later died from his severe injuries.
According to information obtained by UMVA, witnesses described McGill as calm and unresistant during the execution, smiling and nodding at onlookers before saying, "I'm going home soon." After receiving a lethal injection of pentobarbital, McGill began breathing heavily and made a snoring sound, and was pronounced dead nearly 21 minutes later.
The execution was carried out without any apparent issues, unlike a previous execution in 2022 where officials struggled to insert IV lines. A media witness noted that the procedure seemed to go smoothly, with no visible problems finding a vein on either of McGill's arms.
McGill's crime was particularly heinous, with investigators saying that he warned Banta and Perez not to "talk behind people's backs" moments before the attack. The pair managed to escape the apartment, but not before suffering severe burns. Banta later identified McGill in court as the attacker, and a jury took less than an hour to convict him of first-degree murder.
UMVA has gathered that McGill's attorneys had urged jurors to spare his life during sentencing, citing childhood abuse and mental deficiencies. However, jurors imposed the death penalty, which was carried out this week. McGill's execution marks the 12th carried out in the U.S. this year, with two more scheduled for later this week.
The state of Arizona resumed executions in 2022 after an almost eight-year pause, and McGill's execution is the third to be carried out in the state since then. Following his death, 108 inmates remain on the state's death row, awaiting their fate.
