Tucson policeman’s killer could go from death row to life in prison

A man convicted of killing a Tucson police officer is off Arizona's death row after a ruling earlier this year by the Supreme Court that he's entitled to be resentenced.

And Pima County Attorney Laura Conover must decide this month whether to try to get John Montenegro Cruz back on death row for killing Tucson Police Officer Patrick Hardesty or keep him behind bars for life.

The Supreme Court ruled Cruz should be resentenced because jurors in his case were wrongly told that the only way to ensure he would never walk free was to sentence him to death when a life without parole sentence was an option. Court documents cite several jurors who explained they would have chosen life without parole over death, had that been a known option. A Pima County Superior Court judge last month vacated the original death sentence and sent Cruz’s case back to the county for resentencing.

Conover says that this time around her office is determined to follow the law.

"Both the Attorney General and the Pima County Attorney’s Office are required to follow orders of the United States Supreme Court,” she wrote in response to claims made to the media by Michael Storie, the Hardesty family's attorney. "So, when the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the State’s previous position was in error, the State followed the instructions of the Supreme Court.”

Cruz was convicted of the 2003 murder of Hardesty. Hardesty and another officer were investigating a hit-and-run crash that led them to Cruz, who attempted to flee and shot Hardesty five times.

Conover said that before she must decide by the end of the month if Cruz should be resentenced to death, she will speak to the Hardesty family about the sentencing as is required by law.

According to Conover, the victims have been invited to have that meeting and the family attorney, Storie, has been contacted by phone and email in an effort to make that happen.

Any allegations that her office has ignored the victim’s family are false, Conover says.

But Storie said the Hardesty family was caught off guard by news that their loved one’s killer could overcome his death sentence.

“(Hardesty’s brother) Ed is sickened by the way this is being handled by the county attorney who continues to lie to the citizens of Tucson about this case,” Storie said. “I join in Ed’s disgust and also am saddened that this county attorney has lost the respect of virtually all law enforcement in southern Arizona.”

Brick Storts, the trial attorney for Cruz, said it’s about time the error made 20 years ago be rectified.

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Storts said he was the initial catalyst to this turn of events, having raised the sentencing issue long ago. Storts said he "felt very strongly” about the state’s error when he tried the case, knowing jurors had been made to think that the only sentence that would keep Cruz off the streets forever was a sentence of death.

In reality, Cruz could have been given life without parole and would never leave the prison grounds until it’s time for him to be buried, Storts said.

According to Storts, who said he hasn’t followed the case much since he defended Cruz in court, the high court’s ruling was a welcome surprise. He was more surprised to be quoted in the court’s opinion.

“I didn’t want him to get the death penalty,” he said. Now, Storts might get to see that happen, ending a saga that he started two decades ago.

Whatever is decided, Conover said, will be dictated by the law.

"The change in the State’s position was ordered by the United States Supreme Court,” she wrote in her statement. "Both the Attorney General and the Pima County Attorney are required to follow the dictates of the Supreme Court."

Despite this, Storie contends Conover, a Democrat elected to her post in 2020, has already made her decision to take the death penalty sentence off the table for Cruz. He said it was no surprise that Cruz would be granted this relief based off of Conover’s public stance against the death penalty.

“She’s already made her mind up,” Storie said. “This (interim) is all just a horse and pony show.”

Meanwhile, The Maricopa County State’s Attorney’s office has issued its own brief regarding Cruz’ case as the ruling with impact several defendants in the office’s jurisdiction.

“Because several defendants prosecuted by MCAO have similar (claims) now pending in the Arizona courts, the court’s decision in this case will likely impact those cases,” Maricopa County Attorney Deputy County Attorney Rachel Mitchell wrote in the court brief. “Thus, MCAO has an interest in the issues and determination of justice is this case.”