Death penalty sought in death of girl, 8

KINGMAN, Ariz. — A notice to seek the death penalty was filed Wednesday in the prosecution of a Bullhead City man charged in the death of his friend’s 8-year-old daughter.

Justin Rector, 26, faces kidnapping, first-degree murder and other charges in the early September strangulation death of Isabella “Bella” Cannella-Grogan.

Prosecutor Greg McPhillips alleges four aggravating factors necessary for the state to pursue capital punishment, including that the homicide was committed in an “especially cruel, heinous and depraved” fashion.

Early police reports indicated Rector admitted smoking methamphetamine for much of the day leading up to the time that Bella was discovered to be missing from her home on Lakeside Drive late in the evening of Sept. 1. The girl’s body was found a day and a half later on Sept. 3, buried in a shallow grave about a half mile from her home.

Police said Rector’s shoe prints were discovered at the burial site and that he shoplifted a change of clothes from a nearby Wal-Mart within a few hours of Bella’s disappearance. Police reports said Rector had been playing hide and seek with Bella and her 10-year-old sister and that he was the last adult to be seen with her before she went missing.

During a Wednesday afternoon hearing Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen ordered that the county secure a second “death penalty qualified” attorney, as the law requires, to assist Public Defender Harry Moore in representing Rector.

The hearing had been set earlier this week to consider Rector’s request to serve as his own lawyer in legal proceedings.

Judge Jantzen said he would have to consider the pro per motion later because Moore asked the court to order a mental health examination for the defendant. Jantzen explained he couldn’t consider allowing Rector to represent himself until it is determined if he’s competent to assist current counsel in his own defense.

Jantzen appointed Dr. Mark Harvancik to conduct a mental health examination and complete his report by Dec. 3. That report will be considered when Rector next appears in court on Dec. 10.

Moore said the exam is necessary because Rector’s thought processes could be impaired by historic drug abuse. “There seems to be lingering effects from intense use of methamphetamine,” Moore said.

Rector is being held without bond in the same Mohave County jail that is currently housing Bella’s mother, Tania Grogan, 29, Grogan’s husband Ralph Folster, 28, and Folster’s mother Freddie Nicholson, 59. Grogan, Folster and Nicholson were arrested Oct. 15 in a drug case that evolved from the murder investigation.

Each member of the trio is charged with conspiracy to sell dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. Police records reveal that an informant purchased drugs three times from Folster, and once from Folster and Grogan together, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15.

Nicholson was not charged with an actual drug sale.