Jose Ceja was executed by the State of Arizona for a double murder
According to court documents Jose Ceja would go to the home of Randy and Linda Leon. Ceja would shoot Linda Leon multiple times causing her death. Jose would wait for Randy Leon to come home and would fatally shoot him as well. Jose would steal a large amount of marijuana before fleeing
Jose Ceja would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jose Ceja would be executed by lethal injection on January 21 1998
Jose Ceja Photos
Jose Ceja Case
On Sunday, June 30, 1974, Ceja, who was 19-years-old, went to the home of Randy and Linda Leon in Phoenix to steal a large shipment of marijuana. He struggled with Linda and shot her twice in the chest with a .22 caliber pistol.
Ceja dragged her body from the living room to the bedroom, where he used a pillow to muffle 4 additional shots he put into her head at close range.
When Randy arrived home, Ceja’s gun was empty, so he took Randy’s gun from a den drawer. Ceja shot him four times with his own gun, hitting him in the chest, back shoulder and arm. A police investigator said in Ceja’s preliminary hearing that Ceja also kicked Randy in the head as he laid dead or dying.
Ceja then loaded up a suitcase he brought with him with 70 pounds of marijuana. He removed the receiver from the phone and turned on the television to create the appearance that someone was home
In a strange twist, Ceja attended the funeral of his victims, helped move furniture and even offered to help police find the murderer
The judge that twice sentenced him to death, Mel McDonald, later tried to save Ceja’s life. McDonald wrote in an affidavit that “the justification underlying my imposition of the death sentence on Ceja will not be met by executing Ceja now. Executing Ceja after he has spent 23 years on death row does not provide adequate retribution or deterrence to allow the death penalty to stand.”
Ceja spent 23 years and one month on death row, which at the time, was the longest time anyone had been on death row
He spent more than half his life on death row, earning his GED and several college course credits. He was also employed as a porter and a law clerk in the prison law library.
Ceja’s attorney, Charles Van Cott, argued that he already served the equivalent of a life sentence while waiting to be executed, stating “it is cruel and unusual to sentence someone to both a life sentence and a death sentence
