Death Row Inmate From RivCo Dies, Coronavirus Suspected

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A death row inmate from Riverside County died Sunday of apparent coronavirus complications.

San Quentin State Prison inmate Orlando G. Romero, 48, died at an outside hospital from complications that appeared to be related to COVID-19, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A coroner will determine his exact cause of death.

Romero, sentenced to death along with his brother Christopher Self in 1996, went on a crime spree that left three people dead in Riverside County.

Two of the murder victims, Joey Mans, 26, and Timothy Kipp Jones, 24, both of Riverside, were shot to death in October 1992 near Lake Mathews. Jose Aragon, 22, of Redlands, was fatally shot the following month in San Timoteo Canyon near Beaumont.

Romero was sentenced for first-degree murder and second-degree robbery while armed with a firearm. He was also sentenced to three life-with-parole sentences for attempted first-degree murder armed with a firearm, attempted first-degree murder with other offenses, and kidnapping/robbery while armed with a firearm and other robbery offenses.

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Romero is the latest inmate at San Quentin whose death has been linked to COVID-19. Across California, 47 state prison inmates with confirmed cases of COVID-19 have died, including 19 at San Quentin, according to the CDCR website that tracks cases and deaths.

Out of 8,274 COVID-19 cases confirmed so far among state prison inmates, 2,184 have been at San Quentin.

There are currently 715 people on California's death row. The last execution at San Quentin was in 2006.