Summary of Offense:
On the evening of February 20, 1990, the Wagner family returned to their town house in Phoenix from dinner where they had celebrated Darrel Wagner's recent promotion. When they entered their courtyard, Deborah Wagner noticed a light shining out their opened front door. Darrel went inside while Deborah and her seven-year-old son remained in the court yard. Inside, Darrel saw Gonzales, a parolee, standing on the landing holding their VCR tucked underneath his arm. Deborah sent her son for help. When she turned back, Gonzales had shoved her husband out the front door, stabbing him. When Gonzales ignored her pleas to stop stabbing, Deborah climbed on his back. Gonzales stabbed her twice. One cut damaged her spleen, colon and diaphragm and the other punctured her lung. Gonzales then fled.
Darrel Wagner lived long enough to help his wife up and then began a conversation with the 911 operator while gasping for air. Gonzales had stabbed him seven times. Darrel Wagner died from stab wounds to his chest, one skewered the lower lobe of his right lung and another went into the left ventricle of his heart. Phoenix police arrested Gonzales on February 23, 1991. In addition to the murder, he was convicted of first-degree burglary, aggravated assault, armed robbery, theft, and of another residential burglary committed minutes before the murder. In addition to the death penalty, Gonzales was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
Gonzales was sentenced to death on April 27, 1992.
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