Leroy Dean McGill was convicted of killing Charles Perez and burning Nova Banta after a dispute over a stolen gun.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Arizona was set Wednesday to execute Leroy Dean McGill, a death row prisoner convicted of setting two people on fire inside a north Phoenix apartment in 2002, killing Charles Perez and badly injuring Nova Banta.
McGill, 63, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. The case returns Arizona’s death penalty system to public view after years of stops, reviews and renewed executions. It also brings back one of Phoenix’s most violent murder cases, a fire attack tied to an accusation that McGill had stolen a gun.
Authorities said the attack happened July 13, 2002, after Perez and Banta accused McGill of stealing a shotgun from the apartment. Prosecutors said McGill returned with gasoline mixed with Styrofoam, threw it on the couple as they sat on a couch and lit a match. At trial, Banta said McGill told them not to talk behind people’s backs before the fire started. Perez and Banta ran from the apartment as flames spread.
Banta survived but suffered third-degree burns over about three-quarters of her body. Perez was taken to a hospital and died from his injuries. Other people fled the apartment and a nearby unit as the fire moved through the building. Retired Phoenix homicide detective Tommy Kulesa, who worked the case, told 12News that the focus years later remains on Perez, Banta and their families.
A Maricopa County jury convicted McGill in October 2004 of first-degree murder, attempted murder, arson and endangerment. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding him guilty. His lawyers argued for mercy, citing childhood abuse, mental impairment and psychological immaturity. The jury still returned a death sentence after finding the killing especially cruel and finding that others had been placed at grave risk.
McGill’s attorneys made a final effort this spring to delay the execution and revisit sentencing issues, but state courts rejected those requests. McGill waived his right to seek clemency and declined an interview request from The Associated Press. Arizona corrections officials said the execution protocol calls for pentobarbital administered by lethal injection.
The execution would be Arizona’s first in 2026. The state carried out two executions in 2025 and three in 2022 after a nearly eight-year pause caused by drug problems and criticism of the 2014 execution of Joseph Wood. Arizona has more than 100 prisoners on death row, and McGill’s case is one of several that moved forward after the state resumed executions.
As of Wednesday morning, McGill remained scheduled for execution at the Florence prison. The next official milestone was the planned 10 a.m. lethal injection and any statement from state officials after the sentence was carried out.
Author note: Last updated May 20, 2026.