Man who burned his 2-year-old daughter to death dies in prison
TUCSON, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) - A man sentenced to life in prison for murdering his 2-year-old daughter has died in a Tucson prison.
According to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, 50-year-old Shawn Ryan Grell died on April 19. No cause of death was revealed, but all inmate deaths are investigated.
Grell was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 death of his daughter. Police said he doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.
According to authorities, the girl died on Dec. 2, 1999.
Grell had picked up his daughter from day care that day and went to McDonald’s for dinner. At around 7:15 p.m., he then brought the girl to a desert near Mesa and poured gasoline on her and lit her on fire.
Prosecutors said the 2-year-old crawled about 10 feet while on fire and then burned to death. Her body was discovered the next morning. Grell itted to everything.
Grell was sentenced to death. But in 2013, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled that he had mental retardation and by federal law he couldn’t be executed.
The high court called the killing “horrific” and said it was devastating to the family.
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