PINAL COUNTY, AZ (AZFamily/AP) — Two Arizona death row inmates could get additional death sentences for allegedly killing a fellow inmate.

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Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller announced Friday that he filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton, who are already on death row, for the alleged murder of death row inmate Kenneth Thompson.

“Seeking the death penalty is among the most consequential decisions a prosecutor can make,” Miller said. “After a careful and deliberate review, our office determined that the alleged circumstances of this killing and the defendants’ histories warrant pursuing the strongest punishment authorized under Arizona law.”

Miller said Van Winkle and Hampton are accused of the violent murder of Thompson while all three were incarcerated. The case is still going through the courts.

Suspects’ first death sentences

Van Winkle had been sentenced to death for the May 1, 2008, murder of Robert Cotton while they were both inmates in the Maricopa County Jail.

Court documents say jail surveillance video captured Cotton entering Van Winkle’s cell before Van Winkle beat and strangled him for about 20 minutes. After the attack, Van Winkle was seen dragging Cotton’s body out of the cell and attempting to throw it over a second-floor railing.

Hampton was serving a death sentence for the May 17, 2001, murders of Charles Findley and Tanya Ramsdell, as well as Ramsdell’s unborn child.

Documents in Hampton’s case show he shot and killed the couple at their home after Findley reportedly told Department of Public Safety troopers where Hampton could be found to serve a traffic ticket.

After the double murder, Hampton joined two other people in a truck, asked if he had blood on his face, said he was hungry and then asked to be driven to get food.

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In exchange for a plea bargain, Hampton’s cellmate, George Ridley, testified that Hampton admitted to the murders while telling Ridley the story “every night for the two weeks that the men were cellmates.”

Ridley said Hampton claimed he murdered Findley because “he was a rat,” and he killed Ramsdell because Hampton, who was affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood, thought Ramsdell was pregnant with a mixed-race child.

Both Hampton and Van Winkle have filed challenges to their death penalty sentences.

Victim’s own violent past

A jury in Yavapai County sentenced Thompson to death in 2019 for the murders of his sister-in-law and her boyfriend in 2012.

Thompson used a hatchet and knife to kill Penelope Edwards and Troy Dunn in March 2012, 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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