BUCKEYE, AZ (AZFamily) — An inmate serving a decades-long sentence for a murder in Mesa 10 years ago has died at a West Valley hospital.
Apolinar Altamirano, 39, was convicted of killing a clerk at a convenience store in Mesa in the early morning hours of Jan. 22, 2015. Just before 4 a.m. that morning, he walked into a QuikTrip at Stapley Drive and Broadway Road and asked for a pack of cigarettes behind the counter. When the clerk, 21-year-old Grant Ronneback, asked for payment before handing over the cigarettes, Altamirano shot him, walked behind the counter and grabbed several packs.
After a pursuit involving Mesa PD and DPS troopers, Altamirano was arrested. Ronneback died as a result of the shooting.
The shooting gained national attention because Altamirano was an undocumented immigrant who was awaiting deportation on a prior offense. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, and prosecutors sought the death penalty. However, a lower court took the death penalty off the table because Altamirano was intellectually disabled, and the Arizona Supreme Court agreed…