Michael Kiefer

The Republic | azcentral.com

Johnathan Doody sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences.

Technically the earliest Doody could be eligible for parole would be 175 years.

After 22 years and three trials, Johnathan Doody still says he did not commit the Temple Murders, the 1991 massacre at a Buddhist temple near Luke Air Force Base.

"Mr. Doody wants the court to know that he is innocent of these crimes," his defense attorney, Maria Schaffer, said as she addressed Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer at Doody's sentencing Friday.

A jury said otherwise. In January, at the end of his third trial for his role in Arizona's worst mass murder, Doody was found guilty of nine counts of first-degree murder, nine counts of armed robbery and one count each of burglary and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Kreamer had no choice but to send Doody to prison for the rest of his life. Nine times.

In 1991, there were two options for people convicted of first-degree murder: death or life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years. Although Doody's original trial could have ended in a death penalty, that option was removed by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning execution of people who committed murders before they turned 18.

Kreamer imposed nine life sentences with a chance of parole after 25 years and ruled that they be served back to back, though he gave Doody credit for 22 years he's already served in custody.

The judge also sentenced Doody to 12 years in prison for each of nine counts of armed robbery, 12 years for burglary and nine years for conspiracy. All of those sentences run concurrently, that is, at the same time, but after the life sentences are completed. Although Arizona no longer has any mechanism to grant parole, technically, the earliest Doody could be eligible for it would be in 175 years.

"I don't want to lose sight of the victims in this case," Kreamer said.

They were Thai immigrants, like Doody, or of Thai origin, peaceful people: Buddhist monks, a nun and a novice, a temple worker. They cooperated with their killers.

They were "the farthest away from anyone being a murder victim," Kreamer said. "These people were not violent. They did not seek violence."

And Kreamer wondered how two teenagers — Doody, who was 17, and his best friend, Alex Garcia, who was 16 — could have committed so much violence.

"But that is what the jury found happened," Kreamer said.

On Aug. 10, 1991, nine people were found shot to death at the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple in Waddell: the temple's abbot, Pairuch Kanthong; the 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.

Acting on a tip from a man with mental-health issues, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested four men from Tucson and extracted false confessions from them. Investigators stumbled on Doody and Garcia almost by accident — one of their friends was stopped and found with one of the murder weapons.

Doody and Garcia were taken to a hotel and interrogated until they confessed. Garcia was so worn down by the deputies that he told them what they wanted to hear: He had committed the murders with the so-called Tucson Four.

But the Tucson men were cleared in the case, and three of them won lawsuits against the county. Investigators determined that Doody and Garcia acted alone.

According to Garcia, he and Doody put on their high-school ROTC uniforms and boots, which they thought would disguise their footprints.

They brought a 20-gauge shotgun from Garcia's house and borrowed the .22 rifle and knocked at the temple door. They ransacked the temple's adjoining living quarters while holding the residents at gunpoint.

Then, according to Garcia, Doody shot them all in the head with the .22, and he discharged four shotgun rounds into the bodies.

Garcia pleaded guilty in 1993 in exchange for his testimony to avoid the death penalty, which could still be imposed on minors then. Doody was convicted that same year and subsequently sentenced to 281 years in prison.

Because of the forced confession, Doody's conviction was overturned in 2008 and again in 2011 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He went back to trial last August. But in October, the jury reached an impasse, and Kreamer declared a mistrial.

The third trial began in December. In both retrials, because Doody's confession was off-limits, the case hinged on Garcia's testimony and whether the jury believed him. Doody was reconvicted on all counts in January.

On Friday, he sat quietly at the defense table, dressed in jailhouse stripes. Other than his name and birth date, he said nothing during the hearing.

No one spoke on his behalf, though his father, Brian Doody, told The Arizona Republic that Doody was disappointed about the conviction because he still proclaims his innocence.

Two relatives of victims Matthew Miller and Foy Sripanpasert spoke to the court, asking that Doody spend the rest of his life in prison.

There was no other option for Kreamer. He imposed sentence and then sent Doody back to prison.

"You are now remanded to the Department of Corrections," Kreamer said. "Good luck to you."

Click here to see a timeline of the case.

