SAN QUENTIN – A 58-year-old man convicted of murder, who also served a life sentence without parole, died Sunday of apparent COVID-19 complications, state prison officials said.
In a statement Sunday night, state prison officials said the death row inmate Pedro Arias had been treated in an outside hospital, and that a coroner would pronounce an exact death sentence for Romero, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
Arias had been on death row since March 5, 1990, nearly two weeks after his Sacramento County conviction for first-degree murder and second-degree robbery while armed with a firearm.
He had also received a life sentence without convictions for kidnapping for ransom, penetration with a foreign object, attempted sodomy, defamatory and shaky actions on a child under 14, sodomy of a child under 14, two counts of forced labor, second-degree robbery and improvements to the use of a firearm.
At least two dozen San Quentin inmates have died, including several sent to Bay Area medical centers for treatment in the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak that has left more than a thousand inmates ill.
Last weekend, protesters sought to retain support to reduce the deadly impact of the pandemic within state prison facilities. Sunday is a prison guard who underwent the fight against the disease.
Arias was one of 714 people awaiting execution on California’s Death Row, although Gov. Gavin Newsom has effectively served the death sentence here.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.
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