Convicted murderer to be executed today

By Bruce Whetten
Douglas Dispatch
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 11:01 AM MST


Pending a last minute reprieve, convicted murderer Richard Stokley is scheduled to die by lethal injection today in Florence.



Stokley, 60, will be Arizona’s sixth death row inmate to be executed this year.

He was convicted of kidnapping, sexual misconduct with a minor and first degree murder for the July 1991 rape and murder of two Elfrida girls, Mandy Meyers and Mary Snyder, who were each 13 at the time.

According to reports, the two girls were camping with friends in Elfrida when they were taken from their campsite to a remote area where they were raped, beaten and stabbed to death. Their bodies were then thrown into a partly flooded mine shaft.

Stokley's accomplice, Randy Brazeal, then 19, told his father about the murders the next day and surrendered to police. Brazeal told the cops Stokley had forced him to participate in the rapes and murders, although, Stokley maintains his accomplice was a willing participant.

Brazeal accepted a plea deal from the Cochise County Attorney's Office. He admitted guilt to two counts of second degree murder and accepted a sentence of 20 years. He was released from prison in 2011.

Copyright © 2013 Douglas Dispatch

Comments

    Spurwing Plover wrote on Dec 16, 2012 3:31 PM:

    " He has been allowed to live far too long after murdering a innocent person Its time to end all these rediclous appeals or last minute stays of exiction and the victims and their families should get more attention then the killer "

    Teacher wrote on Dec 6, 2012 1:04 PM:

    " He should of died 20 years ago. I have no idea why we have these people that have been convicted and there is plenty of evidence against them, why they live for so many years on our tax dollars. Get rid of the scum as soon as possible. "

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