YUMA, Ariz. (AP) - A jury began deliberating Monday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing six people, including four children, in Arizona more than a decade ago.
Preston Strong is already imprisoned after being convicted of killing a physician in Yuma in 2007.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the current case, calling it a methodical and gruesome set of killings in which four people were suffocated and two others shot to death over money.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Karolyn Kaczorowski said Strong was a hateful person and he alone had the opportunity to commit the killings.
“The motives go beyond money, there is a hatred in him. There is a rage in him,” she said last week.
Defense attorneys questioned the credibility of prosecution witnesses and said the case was thin. They pointed to testimony from an ex-girlfriend who said Strong was at his home on the day of the killings.
“If you believe the timeline has broken down at any point, their case collapses,” defense attorney Ray Hanna said.
Strong is charged with killing 35-year-old Luis Rios, 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia and her four children, ages 6 to 13, at a Yuma house over about six hours in the summer of 2005. Prosecutors have said Strong knew Rios.
Rios and one of the children were shot, prompting 911 calls from neighbors.
Strong wasn’t a suspect after the killings, as police checked multiple leads and tips. He was not arrested and charged in the case until 2014.
The jury completed its first day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict and was scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Strong also knew Dr. Satinder Gill, a Yuma physician who was strangled and bludgeoned in his home in 2007. Prosecutors said a large amount of money was stolen.
Officer’s checking on Gill’s welfare found his home filled with natural gas. Strong is now serving time for that killing.
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