Preston Strong: The Yuma Serial Killer
Overview
Preston Alton Strong is a convicted serial killer on Arizona's death row, responsible for seven brutal murders committed in two separate attacks in Yuma. His crimes were marked by extreme violence and a betrayal of trust. In June 2005, he annihilated the family of his best friend, Luis Rios, murdering Rios, his girlfriend Adrienne Heredia, and her four young children in what became known as the "La Mesa Street Murders." Prosecutors argued the massacre was driven by greed after Rios, who had frequently loaned Strong money, refused to give him more. For over two years, the case went cold, and Strong remained free. In November 2007, he struck again, murdering Dr. Satinder Gill, a local physician, during a robbery at the doctor's home.
Strong, described by law enforcement as a "career con man," was first brought to justice for the murder of Dr. Gill, receiving a life sentence. It was only later, while he was already imprisoned, that investigators formally linked him to the 2005 family slaying. A separate trial for those six murders resulted in a death sentence. The cases revealed a man who used personal relationships to exploit his victims financially before ultimately killing them, including children, with methods ranging from strangulation and asphyxiation to shooting and blunt force trauma.
Early Life and Background
Preston Alton Strong was born in Washington, D.C., in June 1966. Public information about his childhood is scarce. As a teenager, he attended McKinley Technology High School, where he played on the varsity football team as a tight end before graduating in 1985. At some point, he relocated to Yuma, Arizona, where he worked at a car dealership.
Beyond this legitimate employment, Strong had a significant criminal history and a reputation as a con artist. He had prior convictions in Arizona for theft, forgery, and fraud. Court documents and testimony from his trials revealed a man with persistent financial troubles who frequently borrowed money from friends and girlfriends. His closest friend, Luis Rios, was a frequent source of funds, having loaned Strong thousands of dollars over the years. This financial dependency would ultimately curdle into a motive for murder.
The La Mesa Street Murders
On the evening of Friday, June 24, 2005, the Yuma Police Department received a call reporting gunshots and screams coming from a house at 2037 La Mesa Street. When officers arrived around 8:25 p.m., they found a blood trail leading to the backyard, where 35-year-old Luis Rios lay with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and head. He was still alive but died en route to the hospital.
The horror intensified when police entered the home. Fearing a hostage situation, they proceeded cautiously, discovering a scene of unimaginable carnage. Five more bodies were inside: Rios's 29-year-old girlfriend, Adrienne Heredia, and four children. The victims had been killed over a prolonged period, estimated by prosecutors to be at least six hours.
The methods of murder were varied and brutal. Adrienne Heredia, her 9-year-old daughter Inez Newman, 13-year-old Andreas Crawford, and 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya had all been asphyxiated. The two older boys, Andreas and Enrique, were found bound. Adrienne's youngest child, 6-year-old Danny Heredia III, was bound with electrical cords and had been shot multiple times, just like Luis Rios.
The motive, as established by prosecutors, was financial desperation. Approximately one month before the murders, Luis Rios's cousin overheard an argument between Rios and Strong. Afterward, Rios confided that Strong was upset because he had refused to loan him any more money. Having been cut off from his primary source of cash, Strong went to the Rios home and systematically murdered the entire family.
The catalyst for the discovery was Danny Heredia, the father of the two youngest victims, who was separated from Adrienne. He had an arrangement to drop the children off at 6:00 p.m. but became worried when he couldn't reach Adrienne by phone. He arrived at the house around 5:30 p.m. and saw her car but got no answer at the door. As he left, he saw Luis Rios driving toward the home. Later, a neighbor heard the gunshots and called 911.
Murder of Dr. Satinder Gill
For more than two years, Preston Strong lived as a free man while the La Mesa Street murders remained Yuma's most notorious cold case. Then, on November 2, 2007, police were called to perform a welfare check on 62-year-old Dr. Satinder Gill. A friend had become concerned after the doctor missed a dinner engagement and a stranger called her from his phone, claiming to have found it by a canal.
Firefighters forced entry into Dr. Gill's home and found a dangerous scene: the house was filled with natural gas from the stove's open burners, and lit candles had been placed nearby in an apparent attempt to cause an explosion and destroy evidence. They discovered Dr. Gill's body in a bathtub, his head submerged in water. An autopsy revealed he had died of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation and had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and numerous broken bones. Investigators determined that about $24,000 in cash was missing from the home.
The investigation quickly uncovered a financial motive. A friend of Dr. Gill's testified that on November 1, the day he was likely killed, the doctor had asked her to cash a $24,000 check for him. She delivered the cash, mostly in $50 bills, to his house, but he acted strangely, only opening the door enough to take the money.
Suspicion fell on Strong after his then-girlfriend, who worked in Dr. Gill's office, tipped off the police. She told them Strong had given her $9,500 in cash on the day Dr. Gill's body was found, which was highly unusual as she typically supported him financially. Further evidence emerged from a local Walmart's surveillance video, which showed Strong on November 1 attempting to buy a $4,300 money order. When the cashier asked for identification, he claimed not to have any and instead purchased five smaller money orders in amounts that did not require ID, paying with $50 bills.
The Victims
- Luis Rios, 35 — A close and generous friend to his killer, Luis was a father figure to Adrienne's children. He was shot multiple times in his own backyard on June 24, 2005, after deciding to stop lending money to Strong.
- Adrienne Heredia, 29 — The mother of four children, she lived with Luis Rios. She was asphyxiated inside her home on June 24, 2005.
- Andreas Crawford, 13 — A young boy staying with the family, he was bound and killed by asphyxiation on June 24, 2005.
- Enrique Bedoya, 12 — Also a guest in the home, he was bound and asphyxiated alongside his friend Andreas on June 24, 2005.
- Inez Newman, 9 — Adrienne Heredia's daughter, she was asphyxiated in her home on June 24, 2005.
- Danny Heredia III, 6 — Adrienne Heredia's youngest child, he was bound with electrical cords and shot to death on June 24, 2005.
- Dr. Satinder Gill, 62 — A respected Yuma physician, he was strangled, beaten, and robbed in his home on or around November 1, 2007.
Investigation and Capture
The investigation into the La Mesa Street murders was one of the largest in Yuma's history, involving over 1,300 interviews and thousands of tips. Despite the massive effort, the case grew cold. Strong was on the police's radar, but the evidence was initially considered circumstantial. His fingerprints were found on plastic bags near the victims, and his DNA was on the steering wheel of Luis Rios's abandoned Dodge Durango, but as a close friend who was often at the house and in the car, his defense could argue a legitimate reason for its presence.
The crucial break came with the investigation into Dr. Gill's murder. On November 2, 2007, the same day the doctor's body was found, Preston Strong was arrested on unrelated fraud charges. As detectives built their case against him for the Gill murder, they re-examined his connection to the 2005 massacre. On November 28, 2007, police publicly named him as a suspect in both cases.
The legal process was slow. While awaiting trial for the Gill murder, Strong was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on a separate theft charge. He was finally indicted for Dr. Gill's murder in April 2008. It wasn't until June 2014, nine years after the La Mesa Street slayings, that the state formally indicted him on six counts of first-degree murder for those crimes.
Trial and Sentence
Preston Strong was tried separately for the two murder incidents. His first trial, for the murder of Dr. Satinder Gill, took place in 2012. The prosecution presented evidence of the stolen money, the suspicious money order purchases, and the testimony of Strong's girlfriend. The Yuma County Attorney's Office initially sought the death penalty but agreed to drop it in exchange for Strong waiving his right to a jury trial. A judge found him guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, and attempted arson. He was sentenced to natural life in prison plus an additional 25.5 years.
While serving his life sentence, Strong's trial for the La Mesa Street murders began in early 2017 and lasted for months. The prosecution laid out the financial motive, detailing how Rios had cut Strong off. They presented the physical evidence—fingerprints on the plastic bags and DNA on the steering wheel—arguing it placed him at the scene of the crime. Strong's defense attorneys countered that the evidence was flimsy and could be explained by his frequent presence in the home as a friend. On April 25, 2017, the jury found him guilty on all six counts of first-degree murder.
During the penalty phase, the jury found multiple aggravating factors that made him eligible for the death penalty: he had a prior conviction for a serious offense (the Gill murder), he committed multiple homicides, and the victims were under fifteen years of age. On May 5, 2017, after deliberating, the jury returned a verdict of death.
Aftermath and Appeals
Preston Strong has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming police misconduct in both cases. He has filed numerous appeals. A central argument in his appeal of the death sentence focused on juror misconduct. His defense team discovered that one juror, Juror 47, knew about Strong's prior conviction for the Gill murder, a fact the court had tried to screen for during jury selection. The Arizona Supreme Court ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine if this knowledge had prejudiced the trial. The trial court ultimately found that the juror had forgotten about the conviction during the trial and that her knowledge did not influence the verdict.
This finding was upheld on appeal. On September 3, 2024, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Strong's six murder convictions and his death sentences, rejecting all nine of his claims. Preston Strong remains on death row at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Eyman in Florence, awaiting an execution date.
