Man gets 239 years for deadliest mass murder in Arizona history
A man who robbed and shot to death nine people, including Buddhist monks and family members, in an Arizona temple was sentenced to 239 years in prison Friday, Maricopa County court officials said.
Johnathan Doody, 39, had been convicted of carrying out what remains the deadliest mass murder in Arizona history. A temple abbot, five monks, an apprentice monk, a nun and her nephew were gunned down in the Phoenix-area Wat Promkunaram temple in 1991.
Doody and a friend, Alex Garcia, walked into the temple in October 1991 armed with a shotgun and rifle and robbed the templegoers. Doody then suggested they kill all their victims to eliminate any witnesses.
Doody and Garcia were eventually caught when detectives matched the pair’s rifles to the slaying through ballistics tests. Garcia was sentenced to 10 life sentences in exchange for testifying against Doody.
This was Doody’s third trial. A previous conviction in 1993 was overturned and an October trial ended with a hung jury. Maricopa County prosecutors got their conviction in January.
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Twitter: @josephserna
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