Two death row inmates found dead; suicide is the suspected cause

SACRAMENTO — Two condemned multiple murderers, including a convicted serial killer, apparently committed suicide within hours of each other on the nation's largest death row, according to California officials on Monday.

Corrections officials found Andrew Urdiales, 54, unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison late Friday, and he was pronounced dead early Saturday, according to a statement.

He was sentenced to death on Oct. 5 by an Orange County jury for killing five women in California, and previously faced the death penalty for three murders in Illinois.

The California victims were Robbin Brandley, 23, who was attacked as she walked to her car following a concert on Jan. 18, 1986, at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo; Maryann Wells, 31, on Sept. 25, 1988, in San Diego; Julie Mcghee, 29, on July 17, 1988, in Cathedral City; Tammie Erwin, 20, on April 16, 1989, in Palm Springs; and Denise Maney, 32, on March 11, 1995, in Palm Springs. The murders occurred while he was stationed at various U.S. Marine Corps facilities in Southern California.

He previously was convicted of killing Cassie Corum, 21, and Lori Uylaki, 25, both from Hammond, Illinois; and Lynn Huber, 22, of Chicago, in the mid1990s and was sentenced to death there in 2004. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted his sentence to life in prison in 2011 after capital punishment was outlawed in that state.

He had been on California's death row since Oct. 12. While his cause of death is awaiting the results of an autopsy, officials said his death is being investigated as a suicide. He was alone in his cell in the "adjustment center," the first place condemned inmates are housed after arriving at death row.