Bio

Alvie Copeland Kiles was born on May 21, 1961. He lived in Yuma, Arizona, with his girlfriend, Valerie Gunnell, and her daughters, Lecresha and Shemaeah. Before the murders, Kiles had a criminal history that later became important during sentencing. In the 2006 penalty phase, the jury found that he had a prior serious-offense conviction, along with aggravating factors for multiple homicides and especially cruel, heinous, or depraved conduct.

Kiles’s relationship with Valerie Gunnell was central to the case. They lived together in an apartment in Yuma with Gunnell’s two daughters. The victims were not strangers. Valerie was his girlfriend, and the two children were in the home when the fatal attack began.

Murder Story

On February 9, 1989, Alvie Copeland Kiles killed Valerie Gunnell and her two daughters inside their Yuma apartment. Court summaries state that Valerie and both children were beaten to death. The weapon identified in the supplied case material was a bumper jack.

The supplied case material states that Kiles first bludgeoned Valerie to death and then killed Lecresha and Shemaeah after the children began screaming during the attack. Lecresha was nine months old. Shemaeah was five years old. Lecresha’s body was later found floating in a canal in Mexico. Shemaeah’s body was never found.

After the killings, Kiles reportedly told an acquaintance about the murders and took him to the apartment. The supplied case material states that during the visit, Kiles stepped on Valerie’s head. This evidence was used to support the prosecution’s description of the crime as especially cruel, heinous, or depraved.

Kiles was tried in 1989. On December 15, 1989, a jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse. On March 28, 1990, he was sentenced to death for each murder and received consecutive prison terms for the child-abuse convictions. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences in 1993.

After postconviction litigation, Kiles received a new trial. In 2000, a second jury again convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse. A later penalty proceeding was held, and on June 13, 2006, he was again sentenced to death. The jury found aggravating factors that included prior serious offense, multiple homicides, and especially cruel, heinous, or depraved conduct.

In 2009, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Kiles’s death sentences after reviewing the resentencing proceeding. The court rejected his challenges to the death sentences and upheld the judgments. Kiles remains listed as an active Arizona Department of Corrections prisoner on death row.