Jury Sentences Missouri Man to Death for 2 Arizona Murders

A Missouri man convicted in the 2012 murders of his sister-in-law and her boyfriend in Arizona has been sentenced to death.

Yavapai County Superior Court officials say a jury reached its verdict Wednesday and lawyers for 35-year-old Kenneth Wayne Thompson have already filed an appeal.

Jurors began deliberating March 30 whether Thompson should get life in prison or the death penalty.

He has been convicted Feb. 20 on two counts of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors say Thompson used a hatchet and knife to kill Penelope Edwards and Troy Dunn in March 2012 and then poured acid on the bodies and then set his sister-in-law’s Prescott Valley home on fire.

Jurors rejected arguments by Thompson’s attorneys that his motive for the slayings was rooted in his upbringing as a Scientologist.