Brad Nelson was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of Amber Graff
According to court documents Brad Nelson was suppose to be taking care of his sister’s fourteen year old daughter and her brother. Instead Nelson would sexually assault Amber Graff and beat her to death with a hammer
Brad Nelson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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ASPC-E Rynning D/Row
BRAD L. NELSON 249535
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
Brad Nelson Case
¶ 2 In June 2006, Nelson was caring for fourteen-year and ten-month old, Amber, and thirteen-year-old, Wade, at a motel in Kingman, Arizona, while the children’s mother, Nelson’s half-sister, was in the hospital. On the day of the murder, Nelson left the motel room and walked to a nearby Kmart, where he purchased a rubber mallet. Nelson returned to the motel and, while Wade slept, hit Amber in the head with the mallet and covered her with the blanket on the bed.
¶ 3 When Wade awoke, he noticed Amber was still in bed and under the covers. Wade then walked to the Kmart with Nelson, who bought a new shirt. When they left the store, Nelson changed into the new shirt, placing the one he had been wearing in a plastic bag. They went next door to a truck stop, and when they left, Nelson no longer had the plastic bag. He told Wade he must have left it in the bathroom at the truck stop and went back inside. He returned without the bag and suggested that “some homeless guy” might have taken it.
¶ 4 Nelson and Wade then returned to the motel. Amber was still in bed under the covers. Nelson rolled up the sleeping bag he had been using and told Wade he wanted to return it to the Kmart. On the way out, Nelson told a housekeeper “not to disturb [his] niece because [they] ha[d] a noon checkout.” Nelson and Wade then returned the sleeping bag.
¶ 5 Upon returning to the motel, Nelson and Wade met a housekeeper who accompanied them to their room. When they reached the room, Wade pulled the covers off Amber. She was blue, had foam and blood coming out of her mouth, was naked from the waist down, and bleeding from her forehead. The housekeeper called 911, but police and paramedics could not revive Amber.
¶ 6 Police officers found a bloody black sock containing a rubber mallet hidden under the bed. They also found men’s jeans with blood on them. The sock and jeans contained DNA from both Amber and Nelson. Police also found Amber’s pants “turned inside out, with the panties still within them and the socks within the legs of the pants” as if “somebody had pulled them off.” Investigating officers located the shirt Nelson left at the truck stop and the sleeping bag he had returned to the Kmart. Both had Amber’s blood on them.
¶ 7 The medical examiner determined that the cause of Amber’s death was “blunt force trauma to the head.” The medical examiner found Nelson’s semen on Amber’s body.
¶ 8 Nelson was charged with first-degree murder and child molestation. He admitted killing Amber, but argued it was not premeditated. After the State rested in the trial’s guilt phase, the superior court granted Nelson’s motion for judgment of acquittal as to child molestation and felony murder. The jury found Nelson guilty of premeditated first-degree murder. The jury then found proven beyond a reasonable doubt the only aggravator alleged, that Nelson was an adult and Amber was under fifteen years old at the time of the murder. A.R.S. § 13–751(F)(9). In the penalty phase, the jury determined that Nelson should be sentenced to death.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/az-supreme-court/1598725.html
