Murder suspect facing second death penalty for allegedly killing cellmate at Phoenix jail

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell says her office will seek the death penalty against a man accused of murdering his cellmate at a jail in Phoenix last year. The same man, 35-year-old Thomas James Desharnais, was already facing the death penalty in connection with the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Scottsdale.

Mitchell said she filed a notice of claim to seek the death penalty this week, 15 months after 51-year-old Ricard Cano was found unresponsive in a cell he shared with Desharnais at the Lower Buckeye Jail. An attorney for Cano’s family previously told Arizona’s Family that he was strangled.

“The defendant has shown an utter disregard for life whether he is in the community or in custody,” Mitchell said in a news release.

Desharnais was jailed for the alleged abuse and murder of his step-grandson, Chaska Davis Smith, whose body was pulled from a bathtub at a Scottsdale motel in January 2022. Desharnais and the boy’s grandmother, Stephanie Marie Davis, were arrested after police found signs of child abuse against Smith and his 9-year-old half-brother. Scottsdale police previously said the boy endured “horrific” abuse.

Both cases are set to go to trial in 2024. Even if Desharnais is convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death, there’s no indication of when executions of any inmates on death row in Arizona could resume. Executions were paused in January of this year when Gov. Katie Hobbs announced that her office would review how capital punishment is carried out by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry.

At the same time, the governor signed an executive order creating a Death Penalty Independent Review Commissioner who would audit the state agency, a position later filled by retired federal Magistrate Judge David Duncan. Nearly one year later, there have been no updates on the audit or when executions could once again be carried out.

“It’s December, and we have people whose appeals have been exhausted. We have the next of kin who have been waiting and waiting for, most of the time, decades to see justice for their loved ones who have been horribly murdered, so I think something needs to be done,” Mitchell said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “The question is, why aren’t there any executions going on? That is the law.”

Christian Slater, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office, told Arizona’s Family on Wednesday nothing’s changed since earlier this month when Hobbs said she wouldn’t resume executions until a review of the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs and execution procedures, among other things, is complete. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said she won’t seek court orders to execute prisoners while the review is underway.

However, ADCRR director Ryan Thor-Nell said back in June at his confirmation hearing that after previous concerns over Arizona’s supply of lethal injection drugs and execution procedures, the state is ready to execute an inmate if necessary. “Operationally, the issues, the questions, the concerns I had as the director have all been resolved. We have gone through all of our review, all of our preparation, we have put the necessary staff in place, made contact with the necessary individuals,” he said at the time.

Mitchell believes Hobbs and Mayes are taking the law into their own hands regarding executions. “There is a way to change the law, which is through the Legislature and governor or through the people, but it is not something that can be done single-handledly through any one person such as the governor or attorney general,” she said.

The most recent Arizona inmate put to death was Murray Hooper in November 2022. There are currently 111 inmates on the state’s death row.

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