U.S. Supreme Court reinstates death penalty for Arizona killer

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence of Danny Lee Jones, who killed two people 32 years ago in Bullhead City, Arizona.

In a 6-3 decision Thursday, the majority overturned a federal appellate court ruling that Jones did not get effective assistance of counsel at the sentencing stage of his trial. The appellate judges, in ordering the trial court to reconsider, had concluded that evidence of various issues including mental illness, a head trauma and cognitive impairment might have convinced the court to spare his life.

But Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said there was nothing there that had either not been presented or was related to the murders.

He noted that in order to sustain a death sentence in an Arizona murder case, a court must find at least one “aggravating factor’’ that makes the case more than a regular homicide. And in this case, Alito said, there were several, including multiple murders, cruelty, financial motivation and the murder of a child.

The justices said all of that outweighed any chance that a trial court would have reached a different conclusion about whether Jones should be sentenced to death even if all that other evidence had been introduced.

According to court records, Jones was interested in a gun collection owned by Robert Weaver. While the pair were in Weaver’s garage, he grabbed a baseball bat, beat him into unconsciousness and headed indoors to find the collection.

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There he found Katherine Gumina, Weaver’s grandmother, with whom the family was living. He struck her hard enough to crack her skull, leaving her unconscious on the living room floor.

Weaver’s 7-year-old daughter, Tisha, saw the attack and ran to hide under her parents’ bed. Marks on the carpet show Jones dragged her out and hit her, eventually smothering her with a pillow.

Jones then went back to the garage where evidence showed he struck Weaver again. He then left town, using the sale of some of the guns to pay for a trip to Las Vegas, where he was arrested.

The state charged Jones with two counts of murder and one count of attempted premeditated murder. Although Gumina died 17 months after the attack, prosecutors decided not to amend the indictment to add the third death. Jones was found guilty.