Mohave Daily News: Local

KINGMAN - Eight Mohave County defendants tried and convicted for murder await their fate on Arizona's death row.

There are 122 men and two women currently sitting on death row in Arizona. Of the death row inmates, 86 are Caucasian, 18 are Hispanic, 13 are African-American, five are Native Americans and two are listed as others. The men are housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman near Florence. The women are housed at ASPC-Perryville near Goodyear. Executions take place at the central unit at ASPC-Florence.

The last person put to death in Arizona was Robert Comer, who was executed in May 2007 for the 1987 murder of a man near Apache Lake. He was sentenced to death in April 1988. According to the state Department of Corrections, the average time spent on death row is 12 years.

Of the 124 death row inmates, eight are from Mohave County. Charles David Ellison was the last defendant from this county to be sentenced to death. Ellison, 44, of Lake Havasu City, was sentenced in February 2004 for killing an elderly Kingman couple in 1999.

Frank Anderson, 61, was sentenced to death in December 2002 for killing a Golden Valley family in August 1996. His co-defendant, Bobby Poyson, 32, was sentenced in September 1998 for murdering the same family.

Graham Saunders Henry, 63, was convicted and sentenced in February 1995 of kidnapping and killing an elderly Las Vegas man in a remote desert about 40 miles north of Kingman in June 1986.

Danny L. Jones, 44, was sentenced to death in December 1993 for the murder of a Bullhead City man, his grandmother and his 7-year-old daughter in March 1992.

Roger W. Murray, 38, and his brother, Robert W. Murray, 44, were sentenced to death in October 1992 for the May 1991 shotgun slaying of a Grasshopper Junction couple.

Daniel Wayne Cook, 48, received the death penalty in August 1988 for beating, torturing and killing two men in Lake Havasu City in July 1987.

Two Bullhead City area men were sentenced to death but their sentences were commuted. Clarence David Hill was on death row for the murder of his Mohave Valley landlord but a judge threw out his conviction and he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was released after serving more than 16 years. He died a month after his release at the age of 57.

Michael Gene Blakley, 31, of Bullhead City, also was sentenced to death for the murder of an infant girl but his sentence was overturned on appeal and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Two defendants from Mohave County are facing death as first-degree murder charges proceed through Superior Court.

Ari Benjamin Feinner, 46, of Bullhead City, faces the death penalty after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the alleged stabbing death of his wife and mother-in-law in April 2007. His case is set to go to trial Aug. 31.

Brad L. Nelson, 38, of Kingman, also is charged with first-degree murder in the 2006 murder and molestation of his niece.

Other county defendants are charged with first-degree murder but prosecutors have not decided yet to seek the death penalty against them.