Preston Strong

Last updated

Preston Alton Strong (born June 1966) is a convicted mass murderer. [1] He is on death row in the state of Arizona. [2] In 2012, Strong was convicted of murdering Doctor Satinder Gill in the city of Yuma, Arizona, a crime which took place in 2007. Strong was sentenced to life in prison for that crime. While serving this sentence, Strong was also tried and convicted of the 2005 murder of a family of six, including four young children, in a crime that came to be known as the La Mesa Street Murders. Strong was sentenced to death in that case. [2]

Contents

Early life and criminal record

Little is known about Strong's childhood and early life, aside from the fact that he was born in June 1966.

As an adult, Strong worked at a Yuma area car dealership, but police have also referred to him as a "career con man. [3] " Aside from the Gill and La Mesa Murders, Strong has several convictions in the state of Arizona for theft and forgery among other crimes. [4]

La Mesa Street murders

On June 24, 2005, Yuma Police Department officers were called to a house at 2037 La Mesa Street to a report that shots were fired, and someone was screaming for help. When police arrived, they discovered 35-year-old Luis Rios in the back yard of the house, still alive but riddled with gunshot wounds. Rios died later at Yuma Regional Medical Center from his injuries. Not knowing what the situation in the house was, but knowing Rios and his girlfriend had children in the home, police surrounded the house and treated the scene as a potential stand-off or hostage situation, but once police entered the house, they discovered five more bodies. [5]

A now retired police officer who was one of the first to enter the home told the local paper that the home was dark when they entered through a side door, but they immediately came upon two bodies, lying on the floor. These were the bodies of 13-year-old Andreas Crawford, and 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya who both died of asphyxiation. [5] Later, police also discovered 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia (the girlfriend of Rios), and 9-year-old Inez Newman who were both dead from asphyxiation and 6-year-old Danny Heredia III who was dead from multiple gunshot wounds. [6]

In the months and years following the crime, police received thousands of calls and anonymous tips and conducted over 1,300 interviews. Still, it was not until November 28, 2007, that police announced that Preston Strong was a suspect in the murders. At the time of this announcement, Strong was already in police custody for unrelated fraud charges. In the summer of 2014, Strong was officially charged with six counts of first-degree murder concerning the deaths. On April 25, 2017, Strong was convicted of six first-degree murder counts and later sentenced to death. [6]

According to prosecutors in the case, Strong murdered the family because Rios, who at one time had been a close friend of Strong's, had stopped "giving Strong handouts." [7]

The case garnered national media attention, being covered publications such as People . [8] Surviving members of Adrienne Heredia's family even appeared on a 2006 episode of The Montel Williams Show , hoping psychic medium and author Sylvia Browne could provide them with answers to the case.

Murder of Satinder Gill

On November 2, 2007, the body of 62-year-old Dr. Satinder Gill was discovered inside his home with his head in a bath tub filled with water. He had been suffocated, and showed signs of blunt force trauma. Some $24,000 in cash, which a friend had delivered to Gill the day before the death, was also missing from the home.

A friend of Gill's testified at trial that the day before the body was found, the doctor had called her and offered to pay her $100 to go to his house and pick up and cash a $24,000 check. The friend said the doctor was acting very strangely and that when she delivered the cash (all in $50 bills) later in the day, Gill did not fully open the door. Instead, he opened the door part-way, just enough to receive the money. The woman also testified that she had agreed to meet Gill later that night for dinner, but he never showed up. When a stranger called her from Gill's phone the next day, claiming to have found it by a canal, the friend panicked and called the police to perform a welfare check. When no one answered the door at Gill's home, firefighters eventually broke in, finding the house filled with natural gas and lit candles. [9]

Surveillance video from a local Walmart store on November 1 showed Strong attempting to buy a $4,300 money order. The cashier told police she asked Strong for identification, claiming he did not have any. The cashier also said that because Strong had no I.D., he opted to buy four smaller money orders in amounts that did not require proof of identity. Strong's girlfriend at the time also testified in court that she had become suspicious of Strong when he gave her $9,500 in cash on the day that Gill's body was found. The girlfriend felt this was suspicious as she had been paying most of the couple's expenses and did not know where he could have acquired so much cash overnight. [10]

The same day the Gill's body was found, Strong was taken into custody on unrelated fraud charges, and on November 28, 2007, police announced Strong was a suspect in both the Gill and La Mesa cases. While awaiting trial for the Gill murder, Strong was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail on an unrelated theft charge.

Sentencing and aftermath

In 2012 Strong was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of Santinder Gill. He received an additional 25.5 years in prison for kidnapping, armed robbery burglary, aggravated assault and attempted arson, all relating to the Gill case. Two years later, while serving that sentence, he was re-arrested and tried for six counts of first degree murder in the La Mesa case. He was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death. [6]

Since the La Mesa case wrapped, Strong has continued to appeal both convictions, telling a journalist with The Arizona Republic he believed the police were guilty of criminal misconduct in his case. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Laci Peterson</span> 2002 murder of an American woman in California

Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman murdered by her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, while eight months pregnant with their first child. On December 24, 2002, Scott reported Laci missing from their home in Modesto, California.

Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court applied the rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey to capital sentencing schemes, holding that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury to find the aggravating factors necessary for imposing the death penalty. Ring overruled a portion of Walton v. Arizona, which had rejected that contention.

The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnie Ruth Judd</span> Convicted American murderer (1905–1998)

Winnie Ruth Judd, born Winnie Ruth McKinnell, also known as Marian Lane, was a medical secretary in Phoenix, Arizona, who was accused of murdering her friends, Anne LeRoi and Sarah Samuelson, in October 1931. The murders were discovered when Judd transported the victims' bodies, one of which had been dismembered, from Phoenix to Los Angeles, California, by train in trunks and other luggage, causing the press to name the case the "Trunk Murders". Judd allegedly committed the murders to win over the affections of Jack Halloran, a prominent Phoenix businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Ray Allen</span> American murderer (1930–2006)

Clarence Ray Allen was an American criminal and proxy killer who was executed in 2006 at the age of 76 by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison in California for the murders of three people. Allen was the second-oldest inmate at the time to be executed in the United States since 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman</span> American serial killers

Dale Shawn Hausner and Samuel John Dieteman were a duo of serial killers who committed several drive-by shootings and arsons in Phoenix, Arizona, between May 2005 and August 2006. They targeted random pedestrians and animals, mostly doing so while under the influence of methamphetamine, and also set fire to multiple objects. Investigators believe they were responsible for eight murders and at least 29 other shootings. The investigation of their crimes coincided with the search for the Baseline Killer, who was also committing random murders and sexual assaults in the Phoenix area.

Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 (1987), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court qualified the rule it set forth in Enmund v. Florida (1982). Just as in Enmund, in Tison the Court applied the proportionality principle to conclude that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for a felony murderer who was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibited a reckless indifference to human life.

Henry Louis Wallace, also known as the “Taco Bell Strangler”, is an American serial killer who killed eleven black women in South Carolina and North Carolina from March 1990 to March 1994. He is currently awaiting execution at Central Prison in Raleigh.

Choo Han Teck is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was formerly a lawyer before his appointment to the court as a judge. It was revealed in 2021 that Choo was one of the defence lawyers representing Adrian Lim, the infamous Toa Payoh child killer who was executed in 1988 for charges of murdering a girl and boy as ritual sacrifices. In 1994, Choo also defended Phua Soy Boon, a jobless Singaporean who was hanged in 1995 for killing a moneylender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster of Florence</span> Serial killer in Italy – 1968 to 1985

The Monster of Florence is the name commonly used by the Italian media for a non-definitively identified serial killer active within the Metropolitan City of Florence between 1968 and 1985. The Monster murdered 16 victims, usually young couples secluded in search of intimacy, in wooded areas during new moons. Several connected persons have been convicted for involvement in the murders, yet the exact sequence of events, the identity of the main actor and the motives remain unclear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee massacre</span> 1884 homicides in Cochise County, Arizona

The Bisbee massacre occurred in Bisbee, Arizona, on December 8, 1883, when six outlaws who were part of the Cochise County Cowboys robbed a general store. Believing the general store's safe contained a mining payroll of $7,000, they timed the robbery incorrectly and were only able to steal between $800 and $3,000, along with a gold watch and jewelry. During the robbery, members of the gang killed five people, including a lawman and a pregnant woman. Six men were convicted of the robbery and murders. John Heath, who was accused of organizing the robbery, was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison. The other five men were convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Travis Alexander</span> 2008 murder of an American man in Mesa, Arizona

Travis Victor Alexander was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias, in his house in Mesa, Arizona while in the shower. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan W. Ferguson</span> Wrongfully convicted American (born 1984)

Ryan W. Ferguson is an American man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high-school student.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Kylie Maybury</span> 1984 child murder in Melbourne, Australia

Kylie Maria Antonia Maybury was an Australian schoolgirl from Preston, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Maybury was kidnapped, raped, and murdered on 6 November 1984, the date of the 1984 Melbourne Cup Day; and she was nicknamed in the Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Sun News-Pictorial as the Cup Day Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting of Daniel Shaver</span> 2016 police shooting of a man in Mesa, Arizona

On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver of Granbury, Texas, was fatally shot by police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been pointed out of the window of Shaver's hotel room.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Wozniak (murderer)</span> American convicted of murder on death row

Daniel Patrick Wozniak is a former American community theatre actor who was convicted of two counts of murder in September 2016. In May 2010, Wozniak killed his neighbor and friend, Private First Class Samuel Eliezer "Sam" Herr, and Herr's friend, Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, as part of a plan to frame Herr for Kibuishi's murder and steal his combat pay. Wozniak was deeply in debt and wanted money to finance his upcoming wedding and honeymoon. Wozniak and his then-fiancée, Rachel Mae Buffett, lived in the same apartment complex as Herr in Costa Mesa, California.

Robert Trigg was a former chef convicted of the manslaughter of one former girlfriend and the murder of another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Angela Samota</span> 1984 murder in Texas, US

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr., who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Ables</span> American serial killer

Tony Alvin Ables is an American serial killer convicted of multiple homicides in the Tampa Bay area. Officially convicted of two murders, he was linked through DNA evidence in 2006 to two additional cases: the 1983 killing of 84-year-old Adeline McLaughlin and the 1987 death of his 31-year-old girlfriend, Deborah Kisor. Despite their romantic involvement, Ables was not charged and has yet to be tried for McLaughlin's murder. He is currently serving a life sentence for the 1990 murder of another girlfriend, 48-year-old Marlene Burns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Girvies Davis and Richard Holman</span> American serial killers

Girvies L. Davis and Richard "Ricky" Holman were American serial killers who killed at least four people during robberies in Illinois between 1978 and 1979. Davis, the older of the two, told an investigator that shooting witnesses was "easier" than wearing a mask. The two were nicknamed "The .22 Caliber Killers". Davis was executed in 1995, while Holman, too young to be executed, is serving a life sentence.

References

  1. ↑ "Preston Strong sentenced to death for La Mesa Street murders". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Death Row". Arizona Department of Corrections. April 12, 2014. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Yuma Police Name Potential Suspect in Killing of Six". Yuma Daily Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Public Access Case Lookup". apps.supremecourt.az.gov. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Gilbert, James (February 11, 2017). "YPD Unit Leader Describes Murder Scene". Yuma Daily Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 "How It Began: A Timeline for the La Mesa Street Murders". Yuma Daily Sun. April 26, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  7. ↑ Pelisek, Christine (April 28, 2017). "Family's Mass Murderer Convicted 12 Years After Suffocating and Shooting 2 Adults and 4 Kids". People. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Family's Mass Murderer Convicted 12 Years After Suffocating and Shooting 2 Adults and 4 Kids". People. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  9. ↑ Gilbert, James (July 25, 2012). "Woman Who Helped Slain Doctor Testifies". Yuma Daily Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  10. ↑ Gilbert, James (2012). "Video of Strong buying money orders played at trial". Yuma Daily Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  11. ↑ Cassidy, Megan (April 25, 2017). "Jury finds Preston Strong guilty of 2005 slayings of Yuma family". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.