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State v. Prasertphong9/2/2003
CONVICTIONS AND SENTENCES EXCEPT SENTENCES OF DEATH AFFIRMED
A Grand Jury indicted Kajornsak Prasertphong and Christopher "Bo" Huerstel charging them with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of armed robbery for events that occurred at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Tucson. The trial jury convicted Prasertphong of three counts of first degree felony murder and three counts of armed robbery. Following a mitigation and aggravation hearing, the trial judge sentenced him to death for the murders of Melissa Moniz and James Bloxham, and to life imprisonment without the possibility of release for the death of Robert Curry. Prasertphong also received three concurrent prison terms of twenty-one years for the three armed robbery convictions.
Appeal is automatic when the trial court imposes a sentence of death. Ariz. R. Crim. P. 26.15 and 31.2(b). We have jurisdiction under Article 6, Section 5.3 of the Arizona Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes ("A.R.S.") section 13-4031 (2001).
I.
On January 17, 1999, Moniz, Bloxham, and Curry were working the dinner shift at the Pizza Hut. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Michael Orban arrived at the Pizza Hut to pick up Moniz. He found her lying at her waitress station, still alive and spitting out blood. Orban "freaked out." As he turned to run to a Circle K to call 911, he saw Curry and Bloxham, both dead, lying in a pool of blood near the counter by the cash register.
Shortly after Orban's call to 911, an ambulance arrived at the Pizza Hut and took Moniz to the hospital. She died at the hospital one to two hours later of gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and right arm and hand. Curry died of gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and chest. He likely bled to death within five to twenty minutes. When he died, he had 358 dollars in his pockets. Bloxham died of gunshot wounds to the head, chest, abdomen, and left leg. Bullets passed through his lungs as well as the middle of his brain, and he likely died immediately or within three to four minutes.
By the time Tucson Police Department detectives arrived at the Pizza Hut, Moniz had already been removed from the crime scene. During the course of their investigation, the detectives noticed one booth in the restaurant on which silverware, plates, and napkins remained. Later testing of those items revealed DNA evidence from both Prasertphong and Huerstel.
The detectives found bullets, bullet fragments, and shell casings throughout the restaurant, near the victims, in the wait station, on top of the cash register, and lodged in a gumball machine. One shell casing was found near the east entrance of the Pizza Hut, outside of the wait station. Criminalist Lucien Haag testified that from the placement of that shell casing it was likely that the round was fired near the restrooms, and that the bullet traveled through the wall of the wait station, past the area in front of the cash registers, and into the gumball machine, located near the west entrance. Small pieces of Formica or particle board that made up the wall were scattered on the floor outside of the wait station. Based on the location of those pieces, a detective determined that the bullet came from the area by the restrooms and traveled across the restaurant toward the front door.
The morning after the murders, the Tucson Police Department received a telephone call from Josh Simmons. Simmons told police that earlier that morning, Huerstel admitted to Simmons that he and Prasertphong were involved in the Pizza Hut murders. According to Simmons, Huerstel stated that he and Prasertphong originally had gone to the Pizza Hut to rob the restaurant.
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