Homeless in Arizona

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I always forget the names of the Tucson Four who were falsely arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department for the Buddhist Temple Murders.

Here they are:

Mike McGraw
Leo Bruce
Mike Nunez
Dante Parker

The "9 Step Reid Method" which is used by almost every police department in the United States routinely gets innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit.

The "Nine Step Reid Method" is a lot like beating the sh*t out of a suspect with a rubber hose. Except the rubber hose is replaced with a psychological rubber hose.

When the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office questioned the Tucson Four in the Buddhist Tempe Murders, they used the "9 Step Reid Method" to get all 4 kids from Tucson to confess to a murder they didn't commit.

For that matter none of the kids in the Tucson Four had ever been to either Phoenix or Maricopa County. Yet they still confessed to committing the worst murders in the history of Maricopa County.

The Tucson Four sat in the Maricopa County Jail for about a year until it was discovered that Johnathan Doody and Alessandro “Alex” Garcia had the gun that was used to commit the murders.

The Tucson Four were eventually released and Johnathan Doody and Alessandro “Alex” Garcia were convicted of the murders.

The Tucson Four who were wrongfully arrested in the 1991 temple slayings got $2.8 million from Maricopa County.

And just how did the Tucson 4 become suspects in the worst murders in the history of Maricopa county?

Mike McGraw who was in a psychiatric hospital in Tucson called the cops in Phoenix and told them he had participated in the murders and named Parker, Bruce and Nunez as his accomplices.

You would figure that the cops would be smart enough to throw that nutty lead out.

But they dragged Mike McGraw, Leo Bruce, Mike Nunez and Dante Parker from Tucson to Phoenix where they coerced confessions from all of them.

Here are a few links on the Buddhist Tempe Murders:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Source

5 Arrested in Slayings of 9 at Arizona Buddhist Temple

September 15, 1991 | From Associated Press

PHOENIX — Five people were taken into custody Friday in the slayings of nine people at a Buddhist temple, and authorities said the killings were systematically carried out by a gang of robbers who had smoked crack.

Three others were being sought in the slayings, which occurred in August at the temple near Phoenix and raised fears among Asians nationwide.

The killings were carried out by a group of robbers from a gang-ridden neighborhood of Tucson, said Maricopa County Sheriff Tom Agnos. He said the group had smoked marijuana and crack cocaine before killing six monks, two young male disciples and an elderly nun when they didn't find the valuables they had sought at the Wat Promkunaram temple.

Agnos said Tucson police received an anonymous tip on Tuesday about the case, which had been under investigation by a local and federal task force of 66 members.

The bodies were found Aug. 10.

The monks were Thai and the temple served mostly immigrants from Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Some Thai community leaders feared the slayings were hate crimes and the killers would strike again.

"There's no indication it was racially motivated," Agnos said. "The pure motive was robbery."

Thailand's ambassador to the United States, Birabhongse Kasemsri, was in Phoenix to meet with Gov. Fife Symington and members of the Thai community. He said he felt relieved by the arrest.

Agnos said Victor P. Zarate, 28, was booked for investigation of nine counts of murder. He was being held without bond.

Four other men--Mike Lawrence McGraw, 24; Mark Felix Nunez, 19; Dante Parker, 20, and Leo Valdez Bruce, 28--were in custody and would be booked "at the appropriate time," Agnos said. He would not elaborate about their legal status but said the five "have made statements regarding their involvement in this crime that place them at the temple."

The three others being sought were not identified, but live in the same neighborhood as the five in custody, Agnos said.

Authorities on Wednesday and Thursday raided Mirasol Park on Tucson's south side, where the Bloods and Crips gangs are known to operate.

A gun was recovered from the home of one of the five men arrested and Agnos said ballistics tests would be done to determine whether it was the murder weapon.

Agnos said the five men met during the evening of Aug. 9 at a park.

"Their plan was to rob the Buddhist temple in Phoenix," he said.

"They drove to Phoenix in two vehicles believed to be stolen. They stopped in Phoenix, purchased some marijuana at an unknown location and then smoked some marijuana and crack," Agnos said. "They proceeded to the temple, entered the temple, rounded up the people inside into the living room.

"Each individual living quarter was ransacked," the sheriff said. When the suspects did not find the valauables they had expected, he said, "They systematically killed the nine people. They then left the temple and returned to Tucson."

The task force spent about 15,000 hours of investigation on the case before getting the tip--"lead No. 511," Agnos said.

"It turned out to be a pretty good lead."

Source

Buddhist Temple Murders Killer's Conviction Overturned by Ninth Circuit Court

RAY STERN | NOVEMBER 20, 2008 | 4:13PM

The Associated Press reports that the appeals court judges found Doody's 1991 confession was coerced by police.

Longtime Valley residents will recall that the coerced confessions of the four men originally arrested for the murders led to the ouster of then-Sheriff Tom Agnos. Joe Arpaio stepped in to run against a politically weakened Agnos, promising to serve only for one term. Arpaio won his fifth four-year term earlier this month.

As part of its coverage today, the Arizona Republic's Web site posted the newspaper's original 1991 article about the slaying that shocked Buddhists worldwide as well as the Valley community.

New Times covered the slayings and their legal and political aftermath extensively in the early 1990s -- here are a couple of examples.

Evidence and testimony at the trial of Doody seemed to show he was the murderer -- his confession may have been forced, but it apparently wasn't sheer fiction like the confessions of the "Tucson Four." The government clearly needs to take steps to make sure the appeals court decision doesn't allow Doody, as cold-blooded a killer as they come, to walk out of prison. -- Ray Stern

Source

Johnathan Doody gets 9 consecutive life sentences in 1991 temple murders

Michael Kiefer, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 9:30 a.m. MT March 14, 2014 | Updated 9:28 p.m. MT March 14, 2014

After 22 years and three trials, Johnathan Doody still says he did not commit the Temple Murders, the 1991 massacre at a Buddhist temple near Luke Air Force Base.

"Mr. Doody wants the court to know that he is innocent of these crimes," his defense attorney, Maria Schaffer, said as she addressed Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer at Doody's sentencing Friday.

A jury said otherwise. In January, at the end of his third trial for his role in Arizona's worst mass murder, Doody was found guilty of nine counts of first-degree murder, nine counts of armed robbery and one count each of burglary and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

A jury convicted Johnathan Doody for the 1991 murders of nine monks at a Buddhist temple in Waddell.

Kreamer had no choice but to send Doody to prison for the rest of his life. Nine times.

In 1991, there were two options for people convicted of first-degree murder: death or life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years. Although Doody's original trial could have ended in a death penalty, that option was removed by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning execution of people who committed murders before they turned 18.

Kreamer imposed nine life sentences with a chance of parole after 25 years and ruled that they be served back to back, though he gave Doody credit for 22 years he's already served in custody.

The judge also sentenced Doody to 12 years in prison for each of nine counts of armed robbery, 12 years for burglary and nine years for conspiracy. All of those sentences run concurrently, that is, at the same time, but after the life sentences are completed. Although Arizona no longer has any mechanism to grant parole, technically, the earliest Doody could be eligible for it would be in 175 years.

"I don't want to lose sight of the victims in this case," Kreamer said.

They were Thai immigrants, like Doody, or of Thai origin, peaceful people: Buddhist monks, a nun and a novice, a temple worker. They cooperated with their killers.

They were "the farthest away from anyone being a murder victim," Kreamer said. "These people were not violent. They did not seek violence."

And Kreamer wondered how two teenagers — Doody, who was 17, and his best friend, Alex Garcia, who was 16 — could have committed so much violence.

"But that is what the jury found happened," Kreamer said.

On Aug. 10, 1991, nine people were found shot to death at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell: the temple's abbot, Pairuch Kanthong; the five monks, Surichai Anuttaro, Boochuay Chaiyarach, Chalerm Chantapim, Siang Ginggaeo and Somsak Sopha; a nun, Foy Sripanpasert; her nephew, Matthew Miller, who was a novice monk; and a temple employee, Chirasak Chirapong.

Acting on a tip from a man with mental-health issues, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested four men from Tucson and extracted false confessions from them. Investigators stumbled on Doody and Garcia almost by accident — one of their friends was stopped and found with one of the murder weapons.

Doody and Garcia were taken to a hotel and interrogated until they confessed. Garcia was so worn down by the deputies that he told them what they wanted to hear: He had committed the murders with the so-called Tucson Four.

But the Tucson men were cleared in the case, and three of them won lawsuits against the county. Investigators determined that Doody and Garcia acted alone.

According to Garcia, he and Doody put on their high-school ROTC uniforms and boots, which they thought would disguise their footprints.

They brought a 20-gauge shotgun from Garcia's house and borrowed the .22 rifle and knocked at the temple door. They ransacked the temple's adjoining living quarters while holding the residents at gunpoint.

Then, according to Garcia, Doody shot them all in the head with the .22, and he discharged four shotgun rounds into the bodies.

Garcia pleaded guilty in 1993 in exchange for his testimony to avoid the death penalty, which could still be imposed on minors then. Doody was convicted that same year and subsequently sentenced to 281 years in prison.

Because of the forced confession, Doody's conviction was overturned in 2008 and again in 2011 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He went back to trial last August. But in October, the jury reached an impasse, and Kreamer declared a mistrial.

The third trial began in December. In both retrials, because Doody's confession was off-limits, the case hinged on Garcia's testimony and whether the jury believed him. Doody was reconvicted on all counts in January.

On Friday, he sat quietly at the defense table, dressed in jailhouse stripes. Other than his name and birth date, he said nothing during the hearing.

No one spoke on his behalf, though his father, Brian Doody, told The Arizona Republic that Doody was disappointed about the conviction because he still proclaims his innocence.

Two relatives of victims Matthew Miller and Foy Sripanpasert spoke to the court, asking that Doody spend the rest of his life in prison.

There was no other option for Kreamer. He imposed sentence and then sent Doody back to prison.

"You are now remanded to the Department of Corrections," Kreamer said. "Good luck to you."

Source

On the 25th anniversary of infamous Buddhist temple murders, community honors victims

Alexis Egeland, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 8:23 p.m. MT Aug. 6, 2016 | Updated 11:59 a.m. MT Aug. 7, 2016

On Aug. 10, 1991, nine people were killed execution-style in the largest mass murder in Arizona history. Saturday, the community gathered to remember the victims and encourage others to continue their legacy of kindness.

The shooting occurred at Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell on the western edge of the Valley. The nine victims were all members of the temple: the high priest, Pairuch Kanthong; five monks, Boochuay Chaiyarach, Surichai Anuttaro, Chalerm Chantapim, Siang Ginggaeo and Somsak Sopha; a nun, Foy Sripanpiaserf; a novice monk, Matthew Miller; and a temple worker, Chirasak Chirapong.

The bodies were discovered at about 10:30 a.m. on August 10, 1991, but officials believe the shootings occurred about 5 hours earlier. No weapon was found at the temple. Physical evidence showed that the victims were all lined up face down and shot.

Two teenage boys were charged with the murders.

Alessandro "Alex" Garcia, 16 at the time of the murder, pleaded guilty in 1993 to avoid death row. Jonathan Doody, then 17, was found guilty in 1993 and sentenced to 281 years in prison. His sentence was later overturned and he was retried. In 2014, he was again found guilty and sentenced to nine life sentences in prison.

Johnathan Doody gets 9 consecutive life sentences in 1991 temple murders

Saturday, more than 100 monks and community members gathered at the temple. At first, they laughed and talked together. But they grew quiet and somber as they joined the prayers and chants in Thai and Vietnamese, holding their hands in front of their chests.

Temple leaders spoke to the crowd, telling them about the murders and how the temple had tried over the past 25 years to hold themselves together as a community and move beyond what happened. They encouraged others to continue the legacy of the victims' kindness and goodness.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was the agency that investigated the 1991 crime. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who hadn't yet become sheriff at the time of the crime, presented community leaders with certifiates of appreciation at Saturday's event.

"This senseless killing that took the lives of six monks, one novice monk, a Buddhist nun and a lay person continues to be in our minds," Arpaio said in a statement. "As a law man, I am very grateful justice has been served."

Source

Waddell Buddhist temple shooting

Arizona Buddhist temple shooting

Location Waddell, Arizona, United States

Date August 9, 1991

Attack type

Mass shooting, mass murder, massacre

Weapons

20-gauge shotgun

.22-caliber rifle

Deaths 9

Perpetrators Johnathan Doody Allessandro Garcia

Motive Robbery

The Waddell Buddhist temple shooting occurred on August 9, 1991, when nine people were robbed and killed at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell, Arizona. Their bodies were found on August 10, 1991. The shooting is considered the worst massacre in Arizona's history.^[1][2]

Investigation

The victims were all linked to the temple and either Thais or of Thai descent: Pairuch Kanthong, the abbott; five monks, Surichai Anuttaro, Boochuay Chaiyarach, Chalerm Chantapim, Siang Ginggaeo, and Somsak Sopha; a nun, Foy Sripanpasert; her nephew, Matthew Miller, who was a novice monk; and a temple employee, Chirasak Chirapong.^[3]

After the shooting, four men from Tucson, referred to as the "Tucson Four", were initially charged with the crime and gave confessions. However, they later recanted the confessions. Afterward, all four were exonerated when it was discovered they had nothing to do with the crime.^[1][4] The Tucson Four were released after three months of incarceration. They promptly filed wrongful-arrest civil suits against the Maricopa County sheriff’s office. In September 1994, they won a $2.8 million out-of-court settlement offered by Maricopa County.^[5]

Subsequently, the police found the murder weapon, a .22-caliber rifle, in the car of a friend of 17-year-old Johnathan Doody, Thai (born May 9, 1974, Nakon Nayok, Thailand),^[6] leading the investigation to Doody and 16-year-old Allessandro Garcia (born June 12, 1975).^[7] According to Garcia, he and Doody went with the .22-caliber rifle and his 20-gauge shotgun to the temple and robbed it of approximately $2,600 and some A/V equipment. Garcia claimed that Doody panicked, thinking that one of the monks had recognized him as a brother of a temple-goer, then shot all of the victims in the head with the rifle, while Garcia shot four of them again in the torso with the shotgun.^[3][4] According to Garcia, the crime had been planned and leaving no witnesses was part of it.^[4]

Legal proceedings: 1993–2014

Both men were charged with the crime of armed robbery and first-degree murder and convicted in 1994, Doody by a jury and Garcia by a plea deal. They received several lifetimes in prison.^[1][8] On the basis that his confession had been improperly obtained, Doody's conviction was overturned in 2008 by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and again in 2011.^[3]

Doody's second trial resulted in a mistrial in 2013.^[1]

The third trial concluded in January 2014 and found Doody guilty on all counts, including the nine murders. The jury based its findings on Garcia's testimony and circumstantial evidence. Doody was sentenced to 281 years in prison.^[8]