On January 10, 2003 Richard J. Glassel was sentenced
to the following:
MARICOPA COUNTY CR2000-006872
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Count 1, Murder First
Degree of Nila Lynn, committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to Death.
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Count 2 Murder First Degree of Esther LaPlante, committed on April 19,
2000, sentenced to Death.
Several months prior to April 19, 2000 Richard J.
Glassel made several trips to the Phoenix area from California. Richard
Glassel reserved a U-Haul truck one week prior to the shooting and
picked up the truck on the day of the shooting.
According to the police
report given the number of weapons and large amounts of ammunition found
Richard Glassel had obviously planned this crime for some time.
On April 19, 2000 Richard Glassel decided to take
revenge on people he believed to have wronged him in the past and
entered the Board of Directors meeting for the Ventana Lakes Property
Owners Association at Ventana Lakes.
Richard Glassel began shooting
weapons into the group of people attending the meeting. Esther LaPlante
and Nila Lynn were both killed. Edward Ettinger, Charles Yankowski and
Gilbert McCurdy each suffered gunshot wounds. Richard Glassel was
subsequently subdued by the group and held on the floor until the police
arrived.
Inmate Glassel is also convicted of the following:
Maricopa County CR2000-006872
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Counts 3, 4, and 5 Attempted First Degree Murder,
committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to 21 years as to each count.
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Counts 5 through 32 each being Attempted First Degree Murder, committed
on April 19, 2000, sentenced to 18 years as to each count.
Facts as alleged at trial:
Richard Glassel, who once owned a home at Ventana
Lakes, had several disputes with the Ventana Lakes Homeowners
Association before his house was foreclosed and he moved to California.
On April 19, 2000, the Homeowners Association held
its regularly scheduled meeting at the Yacht Club. Duane Lynn, a member
of the Board, was seated at the head table along with Esther LaPlante,
who was attending her first meeting as a Board member after having been
elected to the position the month before. Nila Lynn, Duane Lynn’s wife,
was sitting in the “audience.”
Glassel had returned to Arizona from California on
April 18, 2000. He drove to the Yacht Club during the meeting and walked
into the building armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, fully loaded with
30 rounds of ammunition, two fully-loaded 9-millimeter pistols, strapped
and holstered to his chest, and a ten round .22 caliber pistol in his
hand. He carried 384 rounds of ammunition into the Yacht Club and had
another 359 rounds in his truck.
When Glassel walked into the meeting, and he said
that he was going to kill everyone in the room. Glassel then fired eight
shots in rapid succession with his .22 caliber pistol, paused for a
short moment, and then fired the last two rounds.
One bullet struck Nila Lynn in the back and she died
in her husband’s arms. She was sixtynine. One bullet struck Esther
LaPlante in the arm and another in the head. Esther also died. She was
fifty-eight. Paul Ettinger, Vice President of the Homeowners Association,
was shot in the abdomen. Ken Yankowski was shot in the thigh.
When Glassel’s pistol ran out of ammunition, he
reached for the AR15 rifle but was tackled. During the ensuing struggle,
Glassel managed to fire one round from the rifle, which struck Gilbert
McCurdy in the foot, fracturing it and causing him to lose a toe.
