Longtime magistrate judge remembered for wisdom, community involvement
Richard M. “Buzzy” Padilla, a longtime Santa Fe County magistrate judge and former school board member, died on Monday. He was 76.
His death was announced on Facebook by Santa Fe Fiesta Inc., an organization of which Padilla was a “life member.”
“A man of great wisdom, Judge Padilla retired as a Santa Fe County Magistrate Judge in 2013,” the post said. “He was first elected to the bench in 1994. [Dedicated] to his community, Padilla worked as chief juvenile probation officer for the First Judicial District and as director of the state Children, Youth and Families Department’s Community Services Division. Padilla also served on the Santa Fe school board for 12 years.”
Padilla died following a recent illness, said former Santa Fe Mayor Larry Delgado, a friend who, like Padilla, served on the Fiesta Council and graduated from St. Michel’s High School. Delgado didn’t know the exact cause of death. Attempts to reach family members Monday were unsuccessful.
Delgado said Monday he knew Padilla mainly through St. Michael’s. “I’d always see him at football games and other places,” the former mayor said. “He was such a good person. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. Buzzy was very active in the community. He was a good family man. It’s a sad day.”
Born to Oliver and Luise Padilla in Santa Fe, Padilla graduated from high school in 1959 and received his undergraduate degree in education from the College of Santa Fe. He later did postgraduate studies at the University of New Mexico and court-related studies at University of Texas School of Law.
He was first elected to the Santa Fe Board of Education in 1974. He served three four-year terms, deciding not to seek re-election in 1987. During his time
on the school board, Padilla held several positions, including board president.
At the time he was working as a juvenile probation and parole officer, a profession he began in the early 1960s. The state Supreme Court ruled that employees of the state judicial system couldn’t hold elected office but allowed Padilla and two other judicial employees holding public office to serve out their terms.
Padilla went on to become director of the state Children Youth and Families
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two condemned multiple murderers, including a serial killer, apparently died of suicide within hours of each other on the nation’s largest death row, California officials said Monday.
Corrections officials said they found Andrew Urdiales, 54, unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison late Friday.
He was sentenced to death on Oct. 5 by an Orange County judge for killing five women in California, and previously faced the death penalty for three murders in Illinois.
The California victims were Robbin Brandley, 23, in January 1986 in Mission Viejo; Maryann Wells, 31, in September 1988 in San Diego; Julie McGhee, 29, in July 1988 in Cathedral City; Tammie Erwin, 20, in April 1989 in Palm Springs; and Denise Maney, 32, in March 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, Ill.; and Lynn Huber, 22, of Chicago, in the mid-1990s. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted his sentence to life in prison in 2002 for two murders, and his third sentence was also commuted when Illinois banned the death penalty.
He had been on California’s death row since Oct. 12.
Separately, authorities say they found Virendra Govin, 51, unresponsive alone in his cell in a different death row housing unit late Sunday.
Govin was sentenced in December 2004 for committing four Los Angeles County murders.
The victims were Gita Kumar, 42; Plara Kumar, 18: Tulsi Kumar, 16; and Sitaben Patel, 63. Govin, his brother Pravin Govin, and Carlos Amador, then set the Kumars’ home on fire in 2002. Govin arrived on death row in January 2005. His brother, Pravin, has been on death row since September 2005.
Officials said that while both men’s deaths are being investigated as suicides, there is no indication that their deaths are related.
California has not executed anyone since 2006, and inmates are far more likely to die from suicide or old age.
Since California reinstated capital punishment in 1978, 79 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 25 have died of suicide, 13 have been executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, and one was executed in Virginia.
There currently are 740 offenders on California’s death row.
While suicides are not uncommon, the pair of deaths comes weeks after a rare slaying.
Officials said Jonathan Fajardo, 30, was fatally stabbed Oct. 5 in a recreational yard. Fellow inmate Luis Rodriguez, 34, is considered the suspect, but investigators were trying to determine a motive and how he obtained or was able to make the weapon.
The suspected suicides were announced the same day that a federal court-appointed special master who oversees prison mental health care criticized California corrections officials for proposing that they be allowed to start negotiating an end to federal oversight of suicide prevention efforts.
Special master Matty Lopes called the state’s proposal “incredibly premature” given the continued problems outlined in an expert’s report also released Monday.
Attorneys representing inmates said the state’s suicide rate is, for the second year in a row, on track to exceed 24 suicides per 100,000 inmates. That was before six suicides since Sept. 1, including the two on death row.
That far exceeds the national state prison rate of 16 suicides per 100,000 inmates.
The exchange came as a federal judge considers appointing an outside investigator to weigh a whistleblower’s allegations that top California corrections officials are misleading federal officials about improvements in the treatment of mentally ill inmates.
State officials again denied that there was any fraudulent activity but said some mistakes have since been corrected.