Death Row Inmate Found Dead In Cell At San Quentin State Prison

SAN QUENTIN, CA — A death row inmate was pronounced dead Thursday evening at San Quentin State Prison, officials announced Friday.

Aswad Pops, 48, was pronounced dead at 7:15 p.m. His death is being investigated as a suicide, prison spokesman Lt. Samuel Robinson said. The cause of his death is pending the results of an autopsy.

Pops was housed in a single cell. He had been on death row since April 17, 2000.

Pops was sentenced to death on April 7, 2000, by a Los Angeles County jury for the Jan. 25, 1998, murder of four people during a robbery of a carwash in Compton, Robinson said.

Pops and his accomplice, Byron Wilson, killed the business owner Charles Hurd, 33, and three employees, Michael Hoard, 41, Shawn Potter, 20 and Jessie Dunn, 36.

Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 82 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in the state, one was executed in Missouri, one was executed in Virginia, 14 have died from other causes, and one cause of death is pending.

There are currently 731 inmates on death row in California. Earlier in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on executions.