PHOENIX – A 31-year-old man will serve the rest of his life in prison in connection with the deaths of three people discovered in an apartment fire last year.
According to a June 23 news release from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Chase Christman received three consecutive natural life sentences after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed robbery, and one count of weapons misconduct.
According to authorities, in July 2024, the Phoenix Fire Department responded to an Ahwatukee residential complex and discovered smoke coming from an apartment. Firefighters entered an unlocked door and discovered three people, Merissa Honeycutt, Samuel Lott, and Anthony Frederickson Ceccarelli, dead in a bedroom.
According to the initial release from prosecutors, each victim “showed signs of trauma, including gunshot and stab wounds,” and three pets died in the fire.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell stated that one of the victims had been “stabbed nearly 30 times.”
Investigators discovered evidence, including text messages, Christman’s blood at the scene, and location data from the defendant’s phone, indicating that he was near the apartment. Authorities believe Christman and an accomplice, Dorian Rice, “planned a drug-related robbery” before the victims were killed.
A jury previously indicted Christman and Rice in August 2024 on three counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and three counts of armed robbery.
Christmas was also charged with weapons misconduct, three counts of intentionally killing a domestic animal, and one count of arson in an occupied structure.
Mitchell described it as a “particularly vicious act,” adding that the defendant attempted to cover his tracks by setting the crime scene on fire. I am grateful to the Phoenix Police Department for their investigation, as well as our prosecutors, who ensured he could not escape justice.”
