PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona man who pleaded guilty in the fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old half-brother and in a deadly attack on his cellmate in jail has been sentenced to life in prison.
Judge Michael Kemp on Friday sentenced Andrew Ward to two consecutive life sentences. Ward was spared the death penalty in a case that raised questions about whether the victim, 33-year-old Douglas Walker, should have been paired with a dangerous inmate at Maricopa County’s Lower Buckeye Jail.
Ward had pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder charges. The first killing was that of Austin Tapio in 2014. Ward called police to say he’d stabbed his half-brother, saying he “just felt like killing.”
Ward stabbed his cellmate’s eyes with golf pencils and jammed a plastic bag down his throat three weeks later.
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