On a tragic day in Tucson, Arizona, Clarence Chip Odell, III, a 47-year-old male, lost his life in a brutal act of violence. On May 30, 1996, two men, Robert Glen Jones Jr., age 26, and Scott Douglas Nordstrom, age 28, entered a local smoke shop with the intent to rob it. Odell, a customer in the store, was shot in the back of the head by Jones as the robbery commenced.
Another man, Thomas Lewis Hardman, who was an employee at the shop, was also killed during the commission of the crime.
The two gunmen held the four store employees at gunpoint. After taking approximately $1,300 from the cash register, they proceeded to shoot and kill the employees. This violent outburst was part of a larger crime spree by Jones and Nordstrom. Two weeks after the smoke shop murders, on June 13, 1996, the pair committed another armed robbery at a firefighters' union hall in Tucson, where they murdered four more people. In total, their string of violent robberies resulted in the deaths of six individuals in Tucson.
Following an investigation, both Robert Glen Jones Jr. and Scott Douglas Nordstrom were apprehended and charged with the murders. The evidence against them led to convictions for the series of robbery-murders. Robert Glen Jones Jr. was sentenced to death and was executed by lethal injection on October 23, 2013. Scott Douglas Nordstrom also received a death sentence for his role in the Tucson murders and is currently on death row.
