California Inmate Dies While Awaiting Execution
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A 66-year-old inmate has died while awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison for a 1988 murder in Sacramento County.
The state corrections department said Ralph Michael Yeoman was found unresponsive in his cell early Tuesday. The cause of death is awaiting an autopsy.
He was sentenced to death in 1990 for the Feb. 13, 1988, first-degree murder, kidnap and robbery of 73-year-old Doris Horrell of Citrus Heights. Her body was found in a field west of Interstate 5 near what is now Sleep Train Arena.
Yeoman picked Horrell up after her car broke down as she was en route to nearby Sacramento International Airport.
Fourteen California inmates have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978, while 63 have died from natural causes and 23 by suicide.
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