Robert Lee Walden

As of February 2022, Walden remains on Arizona's death row. He has repeatedly filed appeals to his sentence, claiming that he should have been tried separately for each of the crimes he had been accused of, with the latest such appeal being rejected by the Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021. In 2017, he and several other inmates on Arizona's death row were interviewed on the conditions inside Florence State Prison, ranging from access to recreational activities and watching television.

On May 4, 1991, Walden was hanging around an apartment complex on South Craycroft Street, where he happened upon a woman who was searching to pick up some friends for a breakfast date. After telling her that her friends were supposedly in the apartment, he caught up with the victim, stabbed her in the back, and threatened to kill her if she did not come with him. Walden then pushed her into a laundry room and told her to take off her clothes before subsequently raping her. After finishing, he told her to stay put until he came back, and after doing this once more and leaving again, the woman redressed herself and ran to the car, whereupon she called her boyfriend.

In 1989, Walden was charged with attacking two women in separate incidents in Tucson: the first took place in July and involved a hit-and-run incident with a bicyclist, while the latter took place the next month when he briefly choked a hitchhiker he had picked up. Instead of prison time, Justice John Kelly ordered that Walden be sent to a boot camp at the Florence State Prison, where he remained for some time. Twelve days before the completion of the program, he was accused of stealing candy from other inmates and kicked out. Walden later pleaded guilty to the incident but sent a letter to the judge proclaiming that he had learned his lesson and would be truthful from now on. Despite objections from correctional officers over his prospective release, Justice John Kelly decided to put him on intensive probation. However, due to negligence in screening procedures, Walden was allowed to take on a job as an exterminator for the Arizona Chemical Service Company, allowing him to drive freely around town and without supervision.

Soon after, a series of rapes began in the city, all of which were connected by the fact that they were attacked seemingly at random and often in apartment complexes, with the assailant frequently taunting them during the assaults. The first such case took place on August 9, 1989, when Walden abducted a woman who was checking her mail at her apartment complex, near the intersection of North Alvernon Way and East Blacklidge Drive. Under the threat of a knife, he drove to an abandoned gas station, he raped the woman and later stole her Dodge Omni, which he eventually abandoned. On December 22, 1990, he attacked 31-year-old Nola Jean Knight while she was out to pick up her laundry. During the process, Walden raped and beat her severely, killing her in the process. Knight's naked and battered body was later found by her husband behind a local Circle K store.

Walden was first brought to trial for the 1989 rape, for which he was quickly convicted, but his sentence was not decided immediately as he had other trials lined up. At his murder trial, prosecutors described him as an unfeeling psychopath and manipulator who liked to torment his victims, with one detective, Brian Jones, describing him as the worst offender he had come across in his entire career up until then. In contrast, Walden claimed that he was just a convenient fall guy who was targeted on circumstantial evidence, while his defense attorney, Donald Klein, emphasized on mitigating circumstances for his client, pointing out that he was a gifted athlete who financially supported his family and was supposedly a model inmate.

After graduating college, Walden joined the United States Air Force in 1985, where he was noted for his heavy drinking, and the following year, he was discharged for writing bad checks. Soon after, Walden moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he met 16-year-old single mother Catherine "Cathy" Mills, who eventually married him against her mother's wishes. Not long after, he began to physically and verbally abuse his wife, even beating her while she was pregnant with their first child. Reportedly, Walden forced her to engage in sexual acts against her will, which made her feel humiliated.

Robert Lee Walden, Jr. (born November 15, 1966) is an American murderer, serial rapist and suspected serial killer who attacked several women in Tucson, Arizona from 1989 to 1992, raping four and killing two of them. Sentenced to death on one count and to several life terms for his other crimes, Walden confessed to a third murder after his trial, for which he has never been tried.

Robert Lee Walden was born on November 15, 1966, in Chicago, Illinois, the second of four children. His childhood was somewhat troubled, as his father was an alcoholic who frequently changed jobs and belittled him and his siblings during his drunken stupors. Walden claimed that at some point in his youth he was also sexually abused, but this has never been conclusively verified. However, aside from these issues, the Waldens were considered a respectable family, with the parents encouraging Robert to do well in school, and in particular, sports. Walden claimed that while he was in college, he was on the student council, studied German and was supposedly offered a baseball scholarship, but had to turn it down due to a knee injury.