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Shawn
Ryan GRELL
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 2,
1999
Date of birth:
February 17,
1975
Victim profile: His 2-year-old
daughter, Kristen
Method of murder:
Doused her
with gasoline, and set her on fire
On December 2, 1999, Grell took his 2-year-old
daughter, Kristen, to a remote area in Apache Junction, doused her
with gasoline, and set her on fire.
After Kristen was engulfed in flames, she managed
to walk around and stomp her feet for up to 60 seconds before
collapsing in the dirt.
Kristen suffered third- and fourth-degree burns
over 98 percent of her body, and she died from a combination of the
burns and smoke inhalation.
Trial
Convicted: September 1, 2000 (Guilty Plea)
Sentenced to death: July 9, 2001
Aggravating Circumstances
Prior conviction for a serious offense
Especially cruel, heinous and depraved
Age of victim
Mitigating Circumstances
Troubled childhood
Alcohol use
Remorse
Family support
Sources
Arizona Department of Corrections "Death Row" Web site "Profiles of
Arizona Death Row Inmates," Arizona Attorney General's Office.
State v. Grell
April 4, 2003
Facts
On November 29, 1999,
Shawn Grell left work early, claiming that he was needed at his
girlfriend's house. He never returned to work. He spent the next few
days at the home where he lived with his daughter, Kristen, his
girlfriend, Amber Salem, and Amber's parents.
On the morning of December
2, Amber dropped Kristen off at a daycare center. Later that day,
Grell picked Kristen up from the center, signing Amber's name
instead of his own on the sign-out sheet.
That afternoon Grell drove
to Mesa with Kristen. At 5:40 p.m., he stopped at a convenience
store to purchase beer and a sports drink. About an hour later,
Grell bought a red plastic gas container at a department store in
Mesa. He continued to drive around Mesa before stopping at another
convenience store where he bought just over a gallon of gasoline.
Still later that evening, Grell entered a convenience store in
Apache Junction, but apparently did not buy anything.
Grell then drove to a
remote area near Apache Junction, took his sleeping daughter out of
the car, and laid her on the ground in a drainage ditch
approximately fifteen feet from the road. Kristen woke up as her
father poured gasoline over her. He then lit a match and flicked it
on her, setting her on fire. Kristen stumbled around, walking at
least twelve feet before falling to her knees and then collapsing
face down in the dirt. She died from smoke inhalation and severe
burns over 98% of her body. Only the bottoms of her feet were not
burned.
After watching Kristen
fall to her knees, Grell returned to his car and drove around
briefly before returning to see if the fire had gone out. He then
returned to one of the convenience stores he previously visited to
purchase more beer. He told the worker at the cash register that he
had just seen some kids light a dog on fire in the nearby desert. He
said, "I can't believe that kids would set a dog on fire[;] this is
what the world is coming to when kids set dogs on fire."
For several hours, Grell
drove around and drank beer. Just before midnight a Phoenix police
officer pulled Grell over on suspicion of driving under the
influence , Grell handed the officer a bottle of beer he had been
drinking, and the officer eventually released Grell to walk home.
Grell apparently returned
to his car after the officer left and continued driving because
around two a.m., another Phoenix police officer stopped Grell. This
time the officer arrested Grell and took him to the police station,
where breath tests confirmed that he had a blood alcohol content of
approximately .16. After processing Grell, the officer released him
and a taxi cab took Grell to Third Avenue and Van Buren.
From there, Grell walked
to the state capitol, where he used a call box to telephone the
Capitol Police Department. Grell told the capitol police several
times that he had killed his daughter and informed them where he
left her body. After confirming that an infant's body was found
where Grell indicated it would be, the police arrested him on
suspicion of murder.
At the scene, police
investigators found Kristen's badly burned and lifeless body, tire
tracks that were consistent with the tires on the car Grell was
driving that day, large and small shoe impressions in the dirt that
were consistent with the shoes that Grell and Kristen were wearing,
and a book of matches with one match missing. They also found some
partially burned candy, a melted hair clip, and various articles of
partially burned clothing. Police recovered a red plastic gas
container that appeared new and still contained a small amount of
gasoline. Grell's fingerprints were found on the gas can. Finally,
investigators noted several areas of burnt soil and a strong smell
of gasoline in the area.
Kristen's body was found
face down, and her clothes, hair, and body were badly burned. An
autopsy revealed that she suffered third and fourth degree burns
over 98% of her body. According to the lead detective, the
positioning of Kristen's body, the burn patterns on her clothes and
body, the burn patterns on the ground near her body, and other
evidence collected at the scene were all consistent with Kristen
having had gasoline poured on her body and then being lit on fire.
The autopsy revealed that Kristen's death resulted from thermal
injuries and smoke inhalation.
Several months after his
arrest, Grell signed a "Prisoner Media Waiver" informing him that "statements
made to reporters, newspersons and other members of the media may be
used against you in court." Grell then held a news conference at
which he admitted killing his daughter. At the news conference,
which was video taped, Grell stated:
We [he and Kristen] had
gone to Mesa. Went to Mesa. I was going to see my sister's, my
sister's house, but I decided not to. I decided to go to the store
and get a few beers, and to go drinking, and drive around in the
car. Took Kristen to McDonald's, um, then we just cruised around a
little bit more. And I just, I didn't, I decided that I was going to
go ahead and do it. I went to the gas station to get the stuff and
drove around, trying to find a place where I could do it.
During the press
conference, Grell also stated that Kristen woke up when he poured
gasoline on her and she stood up when he lit the match and threw it
on her.
Three weeks later Grell
sent a letter to the prosecutor in which he stated, "I took my
daughter's life away from her on December 2, 1999; in a very
sickening way!" In the letter, Grell stated several times that he
was guilty. Police investigators confirmed that the handwriting on
the April 21 letter matched Grell's handwriting.
In consultation with his
attorneys, Grell elected to avoid a jury trial and the parties
submitted the case to the trial court based on stipulated facts. The
court found Grell guilty of first degree murder. At the sentencing
hearing, the court concluded that the State had proved beyond a
reasonable doubt the existence of three aggravating factors: a prior
conviction for a serious offense, A.R.S. § 13-703(F) (2) (Supp.
2002); the heinous, cruel, or depraved manner of the murder, id. §
13-703(F) (6); and that the victim was less than fifteen years of
age, id. § 13-703(F) (9). Finding no mitigating circumstances
sufficiently substantial to call for leniency, the court sentenced
Grell to death. Id. § 13-703(E).
Shawn Ryan Grell
Pysih.com
My duties as both the editor and a writer for
People You’ll See In Hell force me to view the dark side of life,
and I see more than my share of the evil that lurks there. Hey, it’s
all part of the job, right? In a way all the child murders and abuse
cases and the taking of life over reasons as mundane as money and
jealousy have hardened me to the point that I’m not touched by a lot
of the things I see and read about. The evil men do seems to have
lost the shock value it used to have.
But this case, man, this is the kind of evil that
takes you breath away. It’s the kind of evil that, after you absorb
the horror of it all, changes you forever.
Meet thirty-five-year-old Shawn Ryan Grell. Shawn
was one of those kids who grew up hard and mean. He killed his
family’s cat, set fire to their dog, and even burned down the house
they lived in. In 1988, when he was thirteen, police arrested Grell
after he fondled a young girls breasts.
Grell was sent to a juvenile facility after the
incident, where he continued to get in trouble. Incidents like
assaulting staff and other inmates earned him a reputation for being
an unstable kid whose “assaultiveness” needed to be controlled. He was
tested and was diagnosed as borderline retarded with an IQ somewhere
between 70 and 80.
Grell had a pretty lousy home life, and he spent
the rest of his youth bouncing in and out of that juvenile facility,
committing offenses like disorderly conduct, shoplifting and assault.
Things did not improve for Shawn Grell with the
passing of his eighteenth birthday. By 1992 he had been convicted of
assault and sent to prison. In 1995 he was back in jail for robbing a
convenience store. Grell was granted parole, but his Parole Officer
violated him when he was caught possessing drug paraphernalia in 1998.
During the three years or so that Grell was out on
parole, he had managed to find himself a steady girlfriend, Amber
Salem, and when he ask her to marry him in 1998, she accepted. He also
became a father. Kristen Salem was born in 1997, and by all accounts
was a happy, well adjusted little toddler by the winter of 1999. All
three had moved in to Amber’s parents home by the time Shawn violated
his parole and was sent back to prison.
After Grell was released in 1999, he tried to walk
the straight and narrow, but his criminal record made it difficult for
him. Because of his felony convictions, companies would either not
hire him, or, if he lied and didn’t tell them about his record, fire
him in a couple of months after his background check was completed.
His inability to remain employed caused a great
deal of conflict in the home, especially between Grell and Amber
Salem’s parents.
Grell was at home December 2nd, 1999, when his
girlfriend’s mother found out he’d lost his job once again. Amber
Salem then called to meet Grell for lunch. Grell cashed his last
paycheck, put in some job applications at Desert Sky Mall and met
Amber outside the food court. She told him how upset her parents were,
and that they were threatening to throw Grell out of the family home.
When Amber returned to work, Grell bought some 32-ounce
bottles of beer and drank in her car. He went to a bar in Phoenix,
then met Amber for her break about 2:45 p.m. After that, Grell said,
he decided to pick up two-year-old Kristen and drive out to visit his
sister.
Grell picked up little Kristen Salem at the daycare
she attended, then took her to McDonald’s for a hamburger. They ate in
an apartment complex parking lot, then cruised around for a while,
looking at Christmas displays.
Kristen started whining.
”I just got tired of it and slapped her in the
mouth. After she stopped crying a few minutes later, she said,
‘Sorry, Daddy,’ and then she started being good, and then she just
went nuts again because she wanted to see her mom again.”
Grell snapped.
He took Kristen to the Target store and purchased a
red plastic 3-gallon gasoline jug for $4. He filled it at a gas
station, then he drove around the desert for about 45 minutes until he
found a ditch on the side of the road that appeared to be just what he
was looking for.
“Kristen was already asleep, so I got out of the
car, then I picked her up out of the car. I said, ‘Kristen, Mommy’s
here. Let’s lay down,’ so I laid her in the dirt next to the car. “I
took the gasoline and poured it on her.”
Even Kristen’s screams and pleas of ”No, Daddy,
no!” weren’t enough to stop him.
“I took the match and threw it on her.”
Detective Donald Walsh of the Maricopa County
Sheriff’s Office testified in court that Kristen was lying on the
ground when the blaze began on the front of her body. She got up and
ran about 12 feet, walking in circles at one point as the flames
spread upwards to her face, he said.
The heat was so intense, Walsh said, that a
barrette on the left side of her head melted, the plastic running down
her face. She finally collapsed face-first in a ditch and died.
In my mind’s eye I see a little child, running
with that stumbling gate that two-year-olds have, screaming in abject
agony, her face blistering, then melting away.
God help me.
Grell drove back and forth until he couldn’t see
the flames anymore. Then he went back, got out and walked over to
Kristen.
‘I just looked at her.”
Six hours after he burned his daughter to death,
Shawn Grell was pulled over in downtown Phoenix for suspicion of drunk
driving. He was arrested and, during a 30 minute interview with police
officers, laughed, joked, and even suggested a lingerie bar he thought
the cops might enjoy. Not once did he mention his two-year-old
daughter.
Two days later, his conscience tearing him apart,
Shawn Ryan Grell turned himself in and confessed to the murder of his
daughter, Kristen Salem. He plead guilty to first degree murder and
threw himself on the mercy of the court.
Judge Barbara Jarrett had sat on the bench for 12
years. During her long and illustrious career, she presided over many
cases where capital punishment was an option, but never found cause to
use it. Not once.
On July 9th, 2001, in one of her last acts before
she retired from the bench, The Honorable Judge Barbara Jarrett
sentenced Shawn Ryan Grell to Death.
Sadly, Judge Jarrett’s sentence was not the end of
this story.
On June 6th, 2006, the Arizona Supreme Court
unanimously decided that Shawn Grell did not give up his right to a
jury sentencing when he waived his right to a jury trial in 2000. His
death sentence was vacated, and it was ordered that a new sentencing
hearing be held. That hearing is going on right now.
At the center of the issue is whether the trial
court erred by failing to find that Grell is mentally retarded and
appropriately weighing that factor in mitigation of his sentence, and
whether the execution of a mentally retarded person violates the
Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Hearing set for father who lit 2-year-old on
fire
By Jim Walsh - The Arizona Republic
March 3, 2009
A father convicted of dousing his own 2-year-old daughter with
gasoline and lighting her on fire a decade ago in east Mesa will get a
second chance later this month to avoid the death penalty.
Maricopa
County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders has a hearing scheduled on
March 17 to hear motions on jury selection and other issues on the
resentencing of Shawn Grell.
In court
filings, prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to a pool of
225 potential jurors but disagreed on numerous other issues, including
whether or not Grell even should be referred to as "the defendant."
Among
the unsettled issues is defense attorney Gary Bevilacqua's motion to
dismiss the death penalty on procedural grounds.
Bevilacqua argues that Grell was found guilty of first-degree murder,
rather than capitol murder. Grell waived his trial in 2001 and was
found guilty by now retired Judge Barbara Jarrett based upon
stipulated facts. The proceedings occurred before the state's death
penalty law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court and overhauled.
"The
death penalty is not available for the crime of first-degree murder,
the noticed aggravating factors are not supported by probable cause,
the indictment cannot be amended to charge the greater offense of
capitol murder," Bevilacqua wrote in a recent court filing.
Grell's
Dec. 2, 1999 murder of his daughter, Kristin, ranks among the most
horrific slayings in the east Valley in recent memory. It drew the
only death sentence meted out by Jarrett during her 12-year career on
the bench.
Jarrett
concluded twice that Grell's attorneys did not prove he was
functionally mentally retarded, a requirement of state law, despite
his low intelligence.
The
Arizona Supreme Court agreed, but still ordered a resentencing because
the U.S. Supreme Court issued two important rulings after Grell's
conviction.
One
ruling found it is unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded.
The other was that only jurors, not judges, can find that aggravating
factors exist to qualify defendants for a death sentence.
That
second ruling forced a change in Arizona's death penalty law, with
juries deciding whether to give defendants death sentences rather than
judges.
But the
U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Grell's death sentence.
Grell's
first sentencing in 2001, and additional hearings in 2005, focused on
a war of dueling psychologists and psychiatrists.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Grell's intelligence
fell within the range of mental retardation, citing several tests.
They clashed, however, on whether his life demonstrated that he was
capable of functioning in society.
In a
court document, prosecutor Jeannette Gallagher wrote that Det. Steve
Lewis, of the County Attorney's Office, had been recontacting
witnesses disclosed by the defense in 2001 in preparation for the
resentencing.
The
potential witnesses include 16 school employees in Iowa, Indiana and
Phoenix who had dealings with Grell as a child, past employment
records and a woman with whom he lived briefly as a teenager.
Kristin
Grell's family could not be reached for comment, but Gallagher's
filing said they are anxious for the resentencing.
"In this
case, Kristin's mother, Amber Salem, has been waiting for over eight
years for a 'final conclusion' in this case," Gallagher wrote in an
April 7, 2008 court filing.
Grell sentenced to death in daughter's murder
By Jim Walsh - The Arizona Republic
Jul. 27, 2009
Eight years after a judge sentenced to
Shawn Ryan Grell to death
for murdering his 2-year-old daughter, a jury reached the same
conclusion and ordered that he die by lethal injection.
The victim’s mother cried and hugged the victim’s
grandmother when the verdict was read. At least two jurors also cried.
“It’s been a long 10 years but it’s worth the wait,”
said Lee Petruso, victim Kristen Salem’s grandmother.
But defense attorney Gary Bevilacqua said he’s
still hoping that the state Supreme Court will reduce Grell’s sentence
to life in prison. “You can’t have a procedure where you execute the
retarded,” Bevilacqua said. “He’s been diagnosed as retarded since
first grade.”
Shawn Grell’s murder of Kristen on Dec. 2, 1999 in
the desert just east Mesa, is considered among the East Valley’s most
heartbreaking and senseless crimes.
Grell waived his trial in 2001 and was found guilty
by now retired Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Jarrett,
who sentenced him to death after rejecting arguments he is mentally
retarded.
In reaction to two U.S. Supreme Court rulings, the
Arizona Supreme Court rejected Grell’s mental retardation claim but
still sent the case back to Superior Court in 2006 for re-sentencing
by a jury.
The nation’s highest court ruled that only jurors,
not judges, can determine aggravating factors that qualify defendants
for a death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that it is
unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded.
Bevilacqua argued that Grell suffers from a
cognitive disorder that leaves him unable to control his impulses.
But prosecutor Kristen Hoffmeyer said, “the only
penalty that fits this crime is that he spend the rest of his days
sitting on death row. Justice demands no less.”
