Arizona pronounced Leroy Dean McGill dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT after a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. McGill, 63, had been convicted in 2004 of murder, attempted murder, arson and endangerment for the July 13, 2002 attack in which he threw gasoline on Charles Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, while they sat on a sofa in a north‑Phoenix apartment. Perez died later at a hospital; Banta survived third‑degree burns covering three‑quarters of her body.
At the hearing, jurors deliberated for less than an hour before returning a death sentence. McGill’s defense team presented evidence of childhood abuse, mental impairment and psychological immaturity, but the jury rejected those mitigating factors. In the weeks before his execution, McGill waived his right to seek clemency and declined interview requests.
John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, told witnesses that “today’s process went according to plan.” McGill looked at the witnesses, smiled and nodded before the injection began. Media witness Josh Kelety of The Associated Press heard him say, “I’m going home soon.” Shortly after the pentobarbital infusion started, McGill began breathing heavily and made a snoring sound. Approximately 21 minutes after the IV insertion, he was pronounced dead.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office advocated for the execution, said her thoughts were with the victims. The state’s execution protocol, which now calls for administering two syringes of pentobarbital, succeeded on the first IV attempt in each arm, a notable improvement over the 2022 execution where staff struggled to locate viable veins.
With McGill’s death, Arizona’s death‑row population stands at 108 inmates. The state has carried out three executions in 2022 after an eight‑year hiatus caused by difficulties obtaining execution drugs and criticism of a botched 2014 execution of Joseph Wood. Arizona also executed Richard Kenneth Djerf in 2025 and Aaron Gunches earlier this year, bringing the total U.S. executions so far in 2026 to twelve.