Richard Glassel

Timeline

• January 13, 2003 — Richard J. Glassel was sentenced to death for the murder of Nila Lynn and Esther LaPlante.
• April 19, 2000 — Richard Glassel committed the killings at the Ventana Lakes Property Owners Association meeting and the associated attempted murder counts.
• April 18, 2000 — Richard Glassel returned to Arizona from California and drove to the Yacht Club during the meeting.
• One week prior to April 19, 2000 — Richard Glassel reserved a U-Haul truck in connection with the shooting.

Background

Richard Glassel once owned a home at Ventana Lakes. He had several disputes with the Ventana Lakes Homeowners Association before his house was foreclosed and he moved to California. Several months prior to April 19, 2000, Richard J. Glassel made several trips to the Phoenix area from California.

The offence

On April 19, 2000, the Homeowners Association held its regularly scheduled meeting at the Yacht Club. Duane Lynn, a member of the Board, was seated at the head table along with Esther LaPlante, who was attending her first meeting as a Board member after having been elected to the position the month before. Nila Lynn, Duane Lynn’s wife, was sitting in the “audience.”

Richard Glassel returned to Arizona from California on April 18, 2000. He drove to the Yacht Club during the meeting and walked into the building armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, fully loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition, two fully-loaded 9-millimeter pistols, strapped and holstered to his chest, and a ten round .22 caliber pistol in his hand. He carried 384 rounds of ammunition into the Yacht Club and had another 359 rounds in his truck.

When Glassel walked into the meeting, he said that he was going to kill everyone in the room. He began shooting weapons into the group of people attending the meeting. Esther LaPlante and Nila Lynn were killed. Edward Ettinger, Charles Yankowski and Gilbert McCurdy each suffered gunshot wounds.

The sequence of shootings included:

• Glassel fired eight shots in rapid succession with his .22 caliber pistol, paused for a short moment, and then fired the last two rounds.
• One bullet struck Nila Lynn in the back and she died in her husband’s arms. She was sixtynine.
• One bullet struck Esther LaPlante in the arm and another in the head. Esther also died. She was fifty-eight.
• Paul Ettinger, Vice President of the Homeowners Association, was shot in the abdomen.
• Ken Yankowski was shot in the thigh.
• When Glassel’s pistol ran out of ammunition, he reached for the AR15 rifle but was tackled.
• During the ensuing struggle, Glassel managed to fire one round from the rifle, which struck Gilbert McCurdy in the foot, fracturing it and causing him to lose a toe.

After the shooting, Glassel was subsequently subdued by the group and held on the floor until the police arrived.

He reserved a U-Haul truck one week prior to the shooting and picked up the truck on the day of the shooting. According to the police report given the number of weapons and large amounts of ammunition found Richard Glassel had obviously planned this crime for some time.

Investigation

The police report indicated that, given the number of weapons and large amounts of ammunition found, Richard Glassel had obviously planned the crime for some time.

Sentencing

On January 10, 2003, Richard J. Glassel was sentenced on the following counts in Maricopa County case number CR2000-006872:

• Count 1 — Murder First Degree of Nila Lynn, committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to Death.
• Count 2 — Murder First Degree of Esther LaPlante, committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to Death.

On January 10, 2003, Richard J. Glassel was also convicted of the following in Maricopa County CR2000-006872:

• Counts 3, 4, and 5 — Attempted First Degree Murder, committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to 21 years as to each count.
• Counts 5 through 32 — Attempted First Degree Murder, committed on April 19, 2000, sentenced to 18 years as to each count.

Other details

Richard Glassel was described as deciding to take revenge on people he believed to have wronged him in the past and entering the Board of Directors meeting for the Ventana Lakes Property Owners Association at Ventana Lakes.