Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) filed a notice at the Arizona Supreme Court Tuesday, declaring the state’s intent to seek an execution warrant for death row inmate Murray Hooper.
“Our state recognizes that those who commit the most heinous crimes deserve the ultimate punishment,” Brnovich said. “It is the appropriate response, and we must faithfully carry out the court-ordered sentences for the victims, their families, and our communities.”
In 2021, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a habeas corpus petition in Hooper v. Shinn which Hooper filed to challenge his Arizona state conviction and death sentence.
The case outlined Hooper’s crime, which began in the summer of 1980, when Robert Cruz, the head of a Chicago crime organization, offered Pat Redmond a job. Redmond and Ron Lukezic co-owned Graphic Dimensions, a successful Phoenix printing business, and Cruz offered them several “lucrative printing contracts” with Las Vegas hotels, but Redmond refused.
Unhappy with this turn of events, Cruz wanted Redmond dead and to eventually take over the business. Hooper and William Bracy, both Chicago residents, flew to Phoenix in December, staying in an apartment with Valinda Lee Harper, and began preparations for the hit job, which included acquiring weapons from a gun store. After an initial failed attempt on Redmond’s life, the two men met former Phoenix police officer Edward McCall, who joined them in the final attack.
The group carried out the hit at Redmond’s residence on New Year’s Eve, 1980. Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, and her mother, Helen Phelps, were preparing dinner when the three men forced entry into the house armed with guns. Hooper and the others demanded jewelry, money, and guns and herded the victims into the master bedroom. After bounding and gagging the family, all the victims were shot. McCall later detailed that Hooper shot Marilyn Redmond and slashed her husband’s throat. Pat Redmond and Phelps died, but Ms. Redmond survived the incident. Hooper and Bracy were taken to the Phoenix airport and returned to Chicago under aliases.
Police were notified of the murders, and officer Louis Martinez questioned Marilyn Redmond, who told him of the incident. In January 1981, police were tipped off by Harper that Hooper, Bracy, and McCall were involved in the murder. This led to a search of McCall’s house, and nearly three months after the murder, Redmond flew to Chicago and positively identified Hooper and Bracy in a lineup.
Eventually, all three men were convicted for the murders, but Bracy and McCall died before the state could carry out their sentences. Hooper was sentenced to death on February 11, 1983.
As reported by The Arizona Sun Time, two Arizona felons – Frank Atwood and Clarence Dixon, both convicted murderers – have been executed in 2022. Brnovich’s new notice regarding Hooper is the third execution notice filed this year.
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry, there are currently 111 inmates on death row.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Murray Hooper” by Arizona Department of Corrections.
