Already Serving 16 Life Sentences, Arizona Inmate Now Faces Death Penalty in Triple Killing But Many Call Him A Hero

By EpicFail · September 24, 2026 · 1 min read

Enlarge

Ricky Wassenaar was already serving 16 life sentences when three men were killed at an Arizona prison on the morning of April 4, 2025. He later told a reporter he wished he had killed more. The dead were Saul Alvarez, Thorne Harnage and Donald Lashley, all convicted of sex offenses involving children. Alvarez was Wassenaar’s cellmate. According to accounts Wassenaar gave after the killings, he attacked Alvarez in their cell, then carried a heavy rock concealed in a laundry bag into the prison yard and used it against Harnage and Lashley. Those details come largely from Wassenaar and a prison advocate; the Arizona Department of Corrections had not confirmed the full sequence when the Arizona Mirror reported it. Wassenaar made no attempt to hide his claimed motive when he spoke to the Mirror. “The taxpayers no longer have to pay for them,” he said. “I’m paying my debt to society.” He also said he had wanted to kill more prisoners. The killings raised a question that predates that morning. Wassenaar had previously claimed responsibility for the November 2024 death of another cellmate, Joseph Desisto, and warned that he would kill anyone else placed in his cell. Desisto’s autopsy did not establish strangulation, and his cause of death was inconclusive. Wassenaar’s claim remains unproven. Wassenaar’s 16 life sentences stem from a 2004 attempted prison escape that turned into a 15-day hostage standoff at the Lewis Prison Complex. Despite his public statements about the three April killings, he pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors have filed notice that they intend to seek the death penalty. His trial is scheduled to begin in January 2028. Read more info about his upcoming trial and watch the video here.

React

Share