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Andrew Ward pleaded guilty in August 2017 to two counts of first-degree murder and the following month was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court to two consecutive life terms with no chance of parole for killing his 12-year-old half-brother in north Phoenix and a jail cellmate three weeks later.

Ward, 27 at the time, walked into a Circle K on a March evening in 2014, borrowed a phone and told a 911 dispatcher he had just killed his half-brother, according to Phoenix police and Maricopa County court records.

Officers sent to the family's north Phoenix home found Austin Tapia dead of stab wounds to the neck, chest and head, police said. They found Ward at the convenience store around 5:30 p.m. with blood on his hands and clothing and a knife in a pants pocket.

When detectives asked why he did it, Ward answered, "Honestly, I just felt like killing," according to court records and the recorded call. A relative had called police from the same home the day before, records show, warning that Ward was mentally unstable and that the family feared he had bought something that could hurt them. No arrest was made on that call.

Three weeks later, while awaiting proceedings at the Lower Buckeye Jail, Ward killed his cellmate, 33-year-old Douglas Walker, who was awaiting sentencing on an armed robbery charge, sheriff's officials said. Investigators said Ward suffocated Walker with a plastic bag and stabbed him, including with a golf pencil.

Prosecutors said documentation of Ward's mental-health history factored into a decision not to seek the death penalty. County Attorney Bill Montgomery said at the time that the plea "ensures that the defendant will not be a danger to others in our community."