Date of Birth: March 11, 1963
Defendant: Caucasian
Victim: Caucasian

On the evening of June 19, 1986, Stanley and his wife, Susan, were arguing about his drinking problem.

He drove Susan, his 5-year-old daughter, Seleste, and his 1-year-old son to a remote area outside Cottonwood. Stanley and Susan continued to argue as they sat in the car.

Stanley ended the argument by shooting Susan three times in the head. He then shot Seleste once in the top of the head, pressing the muzzle of the gun into the skin. Stanley did not shoot his son because the boy was too young to tell what he had seen. After dumping Susan's and Seleste's bodies off the side of the road, Stanley went home and put the boy to bed.

Several hours later, he called the police and told them that Susan and Seleste were missing. The police began a wideranging search that ended late the following day when Stanley confessed.

Stanley received the death penalty for the murder of Seleste, and a life sentence for the murder of Susan.

PROCEEDINGS

    Presiding Judge: James Sult
    Prosecutor:  Charles Hastings
    Start of Trial: June 24, 1987
    Verdict:  July 10, 1987
    Sentencing: September 25, 1987

Aggravating Circumstances:

    Especially heinous/cruel/depraved
    Multiple homicides
    Victim under 15 years of age

Mitigating Circumstances:

    None sufficient to call for leniency

PUBLISHED OPINIONS

    State v. Stanley, 167 Ariz. 519, 809 P.2d 944 (1991).

  

Arizona death row inmate is apparent suicide

By Paul Davenport, Associated Press

Azfamily.com

May 10, 2013

PHOENIX (AP) -- An Arizona death row inmate who murdered his wife and young daughter nearly 27 years ago died Friday in what the Department of Corrections called an apparent suicide.

The department said Milo Stanley, 50, was found hanging in his cell at a unit of the Eyman prison complex in Florence and that his death would be investigated by the department and medical examiners.

Stanley was convicted in Yavapai County of fatally shooting his wife, Susan, and 5-year-old daughter, Seleste, in 1986.

A Corrections Department description of Stanley's criminal history said he shot both victims in the head during an argument with his wife over his drinking.

He then dumped the victims' bodies on the side of a road in a remote area, returned to his Clarkdale home and put his 1-year-old son to bed and called police to report his wife and daughter missing but confessed the next day, the description said.

After a 2 1/2-week trial in 1987, Stanley was convicted and then sentenced 2 1/2 months later to death for killing his daughter and to life in prison for killing his wife.

A federal court docket indicated that Stanley had an appeal pending with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding whether he received effective legal representation during sentencing.

Paula Harms, an assistant federal public defender listed as representing Stanley in the appeal, did not immediately return a call for comment.

In a separate matter, Stanley was among six Arizona death row inmates who were plaintiffs in federal litigation challenging Arizona's execution protocol as unconstitutional. In that now-ended case, federal courts upheld the protocol, but the state made some procedural changes sought by the inmates' attorneys.

The last suicide of an Arizona death row inmate took place on March 14, 2010, when James Adams, 46, was found hanging in his cell.

  

Milo M. Stanley