Bio 

Christopher Allen Hargrave was born on June 30, 1980. By 2002, Hargrave was living in Arizona and was associated with Steven Alan Boggs Jr. Court records state that the two men formed a white supremacist organization called the Imperial Royal Guard. Hargrave was also in a relationship with Gayle Driver, whose family owned a pawnshop. He had been living in a trailer on the Driver family’s property.

In April 2002, Hargrave began working at a Jack in the Box restaurant in the Mesa and Chandler area. He was fired on May 15, 2002, after being accused of stealing from the restaurant. After losing the job, he was also asked to leave the trailer where he had been staying.

Prosecutors later argued that the firing and Hargrave’s connection to white supremacist beliefs were part of the background to the robbery and murders that followed. Hargrave admitted involvement in the robbery but denied being the shooter, claiming that Boggs committed the murders.

Murder Story

On May 19, 2002, Kenneth Brown, Beatriz Alvarado, and Fausto Jimenez were working at a 24-hour Jack in the Box restaurant on Main and Lindsay in Mesa, Arizona. After 10:00 p.m., the employees locked the restaurant doors and continued serving customers through the drive-through window.

That night, Christopher Hargrave and Steven Alan Boggs Jr. went to the restaurant to rob it. Hargrave wore his Jack in the Box uniform and gained entry by saying he had been called in to work.

Once inside, Hargrave distracted employees while Boggs entered through the back door. The three workers were then forced into the restaurant freezer. All three victims were shot several times in the back. Kenneth Brown died inside the freezer. Fausto Jimenez and Beatriz Alvarado managed to escape the freezer after being shot.

Jimenez reached a telephone and dialed 911 before dying. Alvarado made it to the back door, where she was later found alive long enough to speak briefly to a customer and a responding police officer before she died. Investigators found shell casings, bullets, and fragments inside the freezer. The cash registers had been pried open, but less than $300 was taken from the store.

After the shootings, Hargrave and Boggs left the restaurant. They later attempted to use one of the victims’ stolen credit cards at a nearby bank. Two days after the murders, Boggs traded a Taurus handgun at the Driver family pawnshop. The Drivers found the transaction suspicious and contacted police. Investigators later confirmed that the gun was connected to the restaurant murders.

Boggs was arrested first. During police questioning, his statements led investigators to Christopher Hargrave. Hargrave was arrested on June 5, 2002. Hargrave and Boggs were tried separately. Prosecutors presented evidence that both men had participated in the robbery and killings and that they had founded a white supremacist group. The victims were all minorities, and prosecutors argued that racial hatred was part of the context of the crime.

At Hargrave’s trial, the defense admitted that he participated in the robbery but argued that Boggs was the person who shot the victims. On February 9, 2006, a jury found Hargrave guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary, and related offenses.

During the penalty phase, the jury found aggravating factors including pecuniary gain, multiple homicides, and that the murders were especially heinous, cruel, or depraved.

On February 21, 2006, Christopher Allen Hargrave was sentenced to death. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and death sentences in 2010. Hargrave remains on Arizona death row.