Prison staff found two inmates housed in San Quentin Prison’s death row unresponsive. They have been pronounced dead 48 hours apart. Authorities are investigating their deaths, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Suicide is believed to be the cause of death in each case. Andrew Urdiales was the first inmate that prison staff discovered. He was not responsive when a security check was conducted at 11:15 PM on November 2. The second inmate found deceased was Virendra Govin. He was discovered on Sunday at around 10:15 PM.

CPR could not revive death row inmates

Their deaths seem coincidental. Their cells were in separate death row housing units, Fox News noted. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and CNN stated that prison guards performed CPR on each inmate, but the efforts did not revive the inmates.

Inmates more likely to commit suicide

Condemned inmates in California “are far more likely to die from suicide,” according to Fox, since no inmate in the state has been executed in 12 years. The last time an execution was carried out was in 2006. Capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1978. Since that time, there have been 25 suicides. The next highest leading cause of death among death row inmates is “old age,” Fox reported.

Urdiales, former Marine, killed eight women

Urdiales, 54, found his way to San Quentin for murdering five California women. His victims were Tammie Erwin, 20, Robbin Brandley, 23, Julie McGhee, 29, Maryann Wells, 31, and Denise Maney, 32. The murders were committed while he was a Marine and was “stationed at various military facilities in Southern California,” according to authorities and NBC News.

While he was in the Marines during the late 1980s through the early 1990s, the Chronicle stated that he was on a “murderous rampage” that lasted seven years – during which he “terrorized Southern California.”

He left California. He was a serial killer, who also murdered three women in Illinois: Cassie Corum, 21, Lynn Huber, 22, and Lori Uylaki, 25.

In 1997, Urdiales was arrested. He received the death penalty in 2007 and did time on death row in Illinois. His sentence was commuted to life by the former governor, George Ryan, when the state dumped the death penalty in 2011.

‘Monster’ killer extradited to California

Urdiales was extradited to California. He was convicted of the murders he committed in Southern California. Tony Rackauckas, the Orange County District Attorney, described Urdiales as a “monster” and a “callous coward,” CNN reported. Rackauckas additionally stated that the deceased death row inmate apparently “robbed the victims' families.” He seems to have taken his own life instead of having the victims’ surviving family members witness the state imposing capital punishment.

Inmate Govin killed family in the Golden State

Govin, 51, and his brother, Pravin Govin, were both on death row for murdering “four members of a family” in Los Angeles, NBC reported. They killed Gita Kumar, as well as her Plara Kumar, her son, Tulsi Kumar, her daughter, and Sitaben Patel, her mother-in-law.

After killing the family members, the Pravin's and “another man” torched and burned down the victims’ home, according to San Quentin Prison officials and to the Chronicle.

Pravin remains on death row, where he has been housed since 2005. He is among the 740 inmates serving time on death row in California.

Be sure to follow Blasting News for the latest information. In additional recent prison news, four death row inmates in Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit, one day after the state executed Edmund Zagorski in the electric chair. The inmates are seeking to have a firing squad implemented as an option for inmates who were sentenced to die prior to January 1, 1999.
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