Bio

Kenneth Jeremy Laird was born on March 21, 1975. He lived in the Phoenix area of Arizona and was 17 years old when he murdered Wanda Starnes in 1992. He was adopted as an infant. During sentencing, evidence was presented that he had school and behavioral difficulties, had taken medication for hyperactivity, and had a history of substance abuse. This background evidence was considered but did not outweigh the aggravating factors found in the case.

Laird had become focused on getting a blue Toyota 4x4 truck. About two weeks before Wanda Starnes was killed, he told friends that he was going to get one. He also told one friend’s mother that he would get a truck “if he had to kill for it.” 

Murder Story

Wanda Starnes was a 37-year-old cardiac nurse who lived in the Tatum Ranch area of north Phoenix. On September 2, 1992, Laird ran away from his mother’s home and rode his bicycle to Starnes’s house. He knew the property because he and his stepfather had worked there earlier that year. Neighbors saw him near the home that afternoon and evening.

That night, while Starnes was working a 12-hour shift, Laird broke into her home. Phone records showed that calls were made from her house to several of Laird’s friends. He told one friend that he was moving into a home in Tatum Ranch. Starnes returned home from work at about 9:00 a.m. the next morning, which was the last time she was seen alive.

Laird attacked Starnes inside her home. Court records state that there was a violent struggle, and both Starnes and Laird had injuries. Laird tied her up, gagged her, locked her in a bathroom, and placed clothing or towels near the door to reduce sound. He later killed her by tightening a noose around her neck with a screwdriver. The court found that she was still alive when she was strangled.

After killing Starnes, Laird moved her body to the desert and covered it with vegetation. He then used her Toyota truck and was later seen driving it. Evidence also showed that he disposed of bloody items linked to Starnes and tried to explain his possession of the truck by claiming he had found her body in the desert and decided to take the truck because she “didn’t need it anymore.” The Arizona Supreme Court rejected that explanation as contradicted by the evidence.

Police arrested Laird on September 5, 1992, while he was driving Starnes’s truck. He later led police to her body. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, dangerous kidnapping, dangerous burglary, theft, four counts of forgery, and robbery. The trial court sentenced him to death for the murder and imposed additional prison terms for the other crimes.

Laird was sentenced on April 15, 1994. A later juvenile death-penalty report listed him as 17 at the time of the crime, with a March 21, 1975 birthdate, and recorded the case as the burglary, robbery, and murder of 37-year-old Wanda Starnes in North Phoenix.

His death sentence was affected by the United States Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which held that executing people for crimes committed under the age of 18 violates the Eighth Amendment. Because Laird was 17 when he killed Starnes, his death sentence was no longer legally enforceable. He remains imprisoned.