FLORENCE, AZ (AZFamily/AP) — A man has been put to death for the brutal murders of a Valley family as an act of revenge against his former coworker.
Richard Djerf, 55, died by lethal injection at a state prison facility in Florence on Friday morning. He was pronounced dead at 10:40 a.m.
When asked if he had any final words, Djerf replied, “I do not.”
“There are some crimes so unspeakable, so devoid of humanity, that justice demands the ultimate punishment. This is that case. Richard Djerf is a prime example of why the death penalty exists. What this man did in 1993, torturing and murdering nearly an entire family, was pure evil,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement.
“Today was a day of final justice—not only for the memory of the four innocent lives he took, but also for the only surviving son and the extended Luna family, who have carried the weight of that loss every single day. May this bring them some measure of finality.”
The 1993 murders
On Sept. 14, 1993, Djerf used a ruse to get into a west Phoenix home where his Safeway co-worker, Albert Luna, Jr., lived.
Prosecutors said Djerf blamed Albert, who did not witness the killings, for an earlier theft of electronics from his apartment. Djerf became obsessed with exacting revenge and went to the home months later, claiming to be delivering flowers, prosecutors said.
But Albert wasn’t there at the time.
Instead, Djerf held four other members of the Luna family hostage. He eventually murdered Albert’s mother, Patricia, his father, Albert Sr., his 5-year-old brother, Damien, and his teenage sister, Rochelle.
Authorities say Djerf sexually assaulted Rochelle and slashed her throat; beat Albert Luna Sr. with an aluminum baseball bat and stabbed and shot him; and tied Patricia and Damien to kitchen chairs before fatally shooting them. Djerf then tried to set the house on fire.
Albert later came home to find his family dead.
Djerf was arrested soon after and, in 1995, pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death.
The prosecutor on the case called it the worst crime scene he had ever seen. Details emerged about Djerf’s obsession with violent films and disturbing home decor, including a mummy-type skeleton figurine hanging on a noose in his bedroom.
In a 1995 jailhouse interview with Arizona’s Family anchor Scott Pasmore, Djerf described the killings in a matter-of-fact manner.
“I had the father restrained. He broke loose and kept charging me and stabbing me and then I pulled my gun and just started shooting,” Djerf said in the archived interview.
When Pasmore asked if that made him more angry, Djerf laughed and said, “I don’t know what happened I just like…yeah I got taken over to a new level or something like that.”
“You know, thinking about it after it happened, it was like watching a film or a movie or something like that,” he continued. “It was just like I was watching myself do it.”
Recent messages show remorse
Djerf recently messaged Arizona’s Family True Crime Correspondent Briana Whitney about the case, expressing deep regret and remorse, and believes he deserves to die.
After three decades to reflect, Djerf declined to do a final on-camera interview, but has been messaging Whitney ahead of his execution. He said at the time he became obsessed with blaming his coworker and spun out of control.
He said Albert was always innocent and that he is truly sorry for the pain he has caused and the lives he took, hoping his own death brings a measure of peace decades later.
Djerf told Whitney he is not afraid to die, but has anxiety over the audience who will watch as part of the legal process. Whitney was selected as a media witness to Djerf’s execution.
Below is the statement Djerf sent to Whitney:
I’ve done my best to make amends and I’m at peace with this. When this is over, I hope the focus will change from what horrible things I did to the Luna family to something more positive about who they were.
Damien Javier Luna
Rochell Lynn Luna
Patricia Valdez Luna
Albert Beltran Luna Sr.
Those are the names that should be remembered.
Not mine.
Second execution in Arizona this year
Djerf’s death marked the second execution for Arizona in 2025. In March, Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.
In 2002, Gunches shot and killed his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Ted Price, in the desert outside of Mesa. After the murder, he led law enforcement on a chase and shot a Department of Public Safety trooper, who survived thanks to his bulletproof vest. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2007.
There are currently 108 prisoners on the state’s death row.
Arizona’s recent execution history
Arizona has been criticized in the past for taking too long to insert IVs during lethal injection executions. Experts say it should take seven to 10 minutes from the beginning of insertion until a proclamation of death. The state has paused executions twice since 2014 amid concerns over its use of the death penalty.
There was a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties in obtaining the needed drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution was botched: Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.
Executions resumed in 2022, and three prisoners were put to death that year: Clarence Dixon, Frank Atwood and Murray Hooper.
They were paused again in 2023 after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the capital punishment protocol and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes agreed not to pursue any.
The review ended in November 2024, when Hobbs fired a retired federal magistrate she had appointed to examine execution procedures, and the state corrections department announced changes in the lethal injection team.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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