CA death row inmate, condemned for 2002 murder, dies at Sacramento-area prison
An inmate on California’s death row at California State Prison, Sacramento, near Folsom, died Thursday, state corrections officials said.
Armando Macias, 50, was found unresponsive in his cell just after 7 a.m., California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said in a statement.
Macias was pronounced dead at 8:01 a.m. by prison medical staff. CDCR officials are investigating the incident. Sacramento County Coroner’s officials are also investigating Macias’ death, said corrections officials.
Macias was condemned to death following his conviction for first-degree murder in the 2002 murder-for-hire of Southern California businessman David Montemayor, 44, according to Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Macias, then a member of a San Fernando Valley gang, and two other gang members were hired by Montemayor’s older sister, Debora Perna, to kidnap and kill her younger brother. Prosecutors said Perna was jealous because their father passed the family business to her younger sibling.
Montemayor briefly fled his captors before Macias shot him dead.
Perna was convicted in October 2005 of murder with the special circumstances of committing the murder in the course of attempted robbery, as well as kidnapping. He was sentenced in February 2006 to life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
Macias, then of Lancaster, was convicted of the killing in April 2011. Jurors recommended the death penalty in May 2011, and in September 2011, he was sentenced to death, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Macias had been housed at the California State Prison, Sacramento, also known as the “New Folsom” prison, since being brought from Orange County in 2011.
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