Arizona executed death row inmate Leroy McGill on Wednesday morning, ending a 24-year wait for the family of Charles Perez and the woman who survived the attack. McGill, 63, was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PT after receiving a lethal injection.
In his last words in the death chamber, McGill said, “I’m going home soon,” according to officials at the execution.
The execution was for the July 13, 2002, killing of Perez, 21, after McGill walked into the Phoenix apartment shared by Perez and Nova Banta and set both of them on fire. Prosecutors said he threw a cup of gasoline and struck the match after the couple accused him of stealing a shotgun. They said he had mixed Styrofoam with gasoline to create a napalm-like substance. Before lighting the match, he told the pair they should not talk about people behind their backs.
Perez died of his injuries the next day. Banta survived with severe burns covering 75% of her body. The attack is the one Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said involved pouring gasoline on the victims and setting them on fire.
Mitchell said after the execution that “after more than two decades, justice was finally served for Charles Perez and the woman who survived this horrific attack,” and called McGill’s actions “among the cruelest acts imaginable.” She said her thoughts were with Perez’s family and the survivor, who has lived with the physical and emotional scars of that night for nearly 24 years, and added, “May this bring them some measure of peace.”
McGill had been fighting in recent months to stop the execution, but those efforts failed. He also declined to file a clemency petition with the state. His last meal included cottage pie, green salad, onion rings, bread and butter, and chocolate cake.
The execution was Arizona’s first in 2026 and the 13th in the United States this year. It also came during a week with three executions scheduled over a two-day period, including two planned in Tennessee and Florida on Thursday.
For Perez’s family and Banta, the state’s final punishment closed a case that began with one violent night in Phoenix and ended with McGill’s death 24 years later.
