Death Ordered for Boy, 15, in Triple Slaying

A 15-year-old boy was sentenced today to die by poison injection for his capital murder conviction in the stabbing deaths of two elderly sisters and their great-grandnephew.

Ronald Ward of West Memphis, Ark., a three-time seventh grader who will be 16 in October, was sentenced by Circuit Judge David Burnett of Osceola about 1 a.m. The boy sat bolt upright, then slumped and began sobbing as the sentence was read.

Some of the victims’ relatives and some jurors also cried after the sentence was read.

The all-white jury deliberated about two hours before finding Ward guilty shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday. Jurors then deliberated for 35 minutes and recommended the death penalty. The only other penalty allowed by Arkansas law for a capital murder conviction is life in prison without parole.

Ward was convicted of killing Lois Townsend Jarvis, 76, Audrey Townsend, 72, and Chris Simmons, 12, his classmate.

One Victim Raped

The bodies were found in a bedroom of the sisters’ home in West Memphis on April 12. An autopsy showed that Townsend had been raped.

Deputy Prosecutor Joe Rogers said: “It was a very difficult case. It’s difficult to have to ask a jury to impose the death penalty given the age of the defendant.”

At the sentencing, Burnett asked Ward if he had anything to say. The boy said: “I did not kill those people. I’m not guilty of this. I did not do it.”

Testifying Thursday, Ward said almost in a whisper that two men from West Memphis had forced him to break into the home with them. He said one of the men had raped him and then forced him to rape one of the women. He said he escaped and didn’t see anyone get killed.

“What you’re faced with here is a very crafty young liar who is quite good at it, but the evidence against him is so overwhelming he got caught at it,” Prosecutor Scott Hunter told reporters after the trial.

Burnett set Ward’s execution for April 12, 1986--one year to the day after the bodies were found. The sentence is appealed automatically.