Posted on 10/08/2017 9:29:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A condemned murderer who was one of just 16 inmates on California’s Death Row to have exhausted his appeals died of unknown causes, prison officials have announced.
San Quentin officials are investigating the death of Fernando Belmontes, 56, but say there was no obvious cause. More details about his death earlier this month have not been released.
Belmontes was one of 16 condemned inmates — out of California’s nearly 750 — who had exhausted his appeals. As such, he was considered a top priority for execution.
Belmontes was sentenced to die at 20 years old, a year after he murdered 19-year-old Steacy McConnell during a 1981 burglary. It started when he and two others broke into McConnell’s home in San Joaquin County, just east of Lodi.
Belmontes, who was living in a halfway house at the time, bludgeoned McConnel 15-20 times with an iron dumbell, crushing her skull.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Sure be nice if California could fry Richard Allen Davis, the killer of Polly Klaas. It’s been friggin’ 24 years.
He fell onto a sharpened toothbrush 19 times.
Sentenced at age 20 (36 years on the taxpayer dime).
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