In the early morning hours of a November day in 1981, the life of a man named Juan Maya came to a brutal and tragic end in Phoenix, Arizona. His ordeal began when he encountered a 14-year-old hitchhiker, Martin Norton, and drove him to a mobile home where Norton lived with a friend, Steven James. What transpired inside that trailer would set in motion a horrific chain of events.
According to Norton's later testimony, after an alleged homosexual advance by Maya, Norton informed James
about it, who then violently attacked Maya. When Maya tried to flee, he was pursued by James and another man, Lawrence Libberton, and dragged back to the trailer. There, the three men took turns beating the bleeding and pleading Maya, who offered his car and credit cards in a desperate attempt to make them stop. Instead, his wallet was taken, and a decision was made to kill him.
With Libberton holding a gun on him, Maya was forced into his own car and driven for two hours to an isolated desert area in Salome. During the journey, James used Maya's credit cards to purchase gas and cigarettes. Even a traffic stop for speeding did not provide an escape for Maya, as Libberton threatened to shoot him if he uttered a word.
Upon reaching a remote property owned by James's parents, Maya was marched up the side of a small mountain to an abandoned mine shaft. After being allowed a final cigarette, the final, savage assault began. As Maya struggled with James, Libberton struck him with a rock and a board. The assailants then shot him and continued to beat him with rocks before callously discarding his body down the mine shaft. The three then returned to Phoenix, where James instructed Norton to clean the blood from the trailer. Their short-lived spree with Maya's car and credit cards came to an end later that day when Libberton was apprehended while attempting to get a cash advance on one of the stolen cards. All three assailants, Steven James, Lawrence Libberton, and Martin Norton, were subsequently convicted for their roles in the kidnapping and murder of Juan Maya.
