Target Buddhists Deaths 9 | Date August 9, 1991 Motive Robbery | |
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Attack type Mass shooting, mass murder, massacre Location Waddell, Arizona, United States Weapons 20-gauge shotgun.22-caliber rifle Perpetrators Johnathan Doody, Allessandro Garcia | ||
The Waddell Buddhist temple shooting occurred on August 9, 1991, when nine people were robbed and killed at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist Temple in Waddell, Arizona. Their bodies were found on August 10, 1991. The shooting is considered the worst massacre in Arizona's history.
Contents
Investigation
The victims were all linked to the temple and either Thais or of Thai descent: Pairuch Kanthong, the abbott; five monks, Surichai Anuttaro, Boochuay Chaiyarach, Chalerm Chantapim, Siang Ginggaeo, and Somsak Sopha; a nun, Foy Sripanpasert; her nephew, Matthew Miller, who was a novice monk; and a temple employee, Chirasak Chirapong.
After the shooting, four men from Tucson, referred to as the "Tucson Four", were initially charged with the crime and gave confessions. However, they later recanted the confessions. Afterwards, all four were exonerated when it was discovered they had nothing to do with the crime. The Tucson Four were released after three months of incarceration. They promptly filed wrongful-arrest civil suits against the Maricopa County sheriff’s office. In September 1994, they won a $2.8 million dollar out-of-court settlement offered by Maricopa County.
Subsequently, the police found the murder weapon, a .22-caliber rifle, in the car of a friend of 17-year-old Johnathan Doody (born 9 May 1974, Nakon Nayok, Thailand), leading the investigation to Doody and 16-year-old Allessandro Garcia (born June 12, 1975). According to Garcia, he and Doody went with the .22-caliber rifle and his 20-gauge shotgun to the temple and robbed it of approximately $2,600 and some A/V equipment. Garcia claimed that Doody panicked, thinking that one of the monks had recognized him as a brother of a temple-goer, then shot all of the victims in the head with the rifle, while Garcia shot four of them again in the torso with the shotgun. According to Garcia, the crime had been planned in advance and leaving no witnesses was part of it.
Legal proceedings: 1993–2014
Both men were charged with the crime of armed robbery and first-degree murder and convicted in 1994, Doody by a jury and Garcia by a plea deal. They received several lifetimes in prison. On the basis that his confession had been improperly obtained, Doody's conviction was overturned in 2008 by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and again in 2011. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Circuit Court.
Doody's second trial resulted in a mistrial in 2013.
The third trial concluded in January 2014 and found Doody guilty on all counts, including the nine murders. The jury based its findings on Garcia's testimony and circumstantial evidence. Doody was sentenced to 281 years in prison.