Another San Quentin Death Row Inmate Dies Alone in Cell

A death row inmate was found dead in his cell at San Quentin State Prison Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Richard James Poynton, 64, was found unresponsive in his single-occupied cell and pronounced deceased at 6:50 a.m. Poynton was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County in 2001, for the 1999 murder of his estranged wife Maria Poynton, officials said.

“A month after Maria obtained a restraining order to remove Poynton from the home, he ran her vehicle off the road and approached her, hitting her twice over the head and stabbing her 12 times,” CDCR officials said in a news release.

Poynton had been on death row since April 18, 2001. The cause of his death is still unknown and pending the results of an autopsy.

“Since 1978 when California reinstated capital punishment, 66 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 24 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, seven have died from other causes and three inmates’ causes of death are pending,” the CDCR said. “There are 752 people on California’s death row.”

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– Bay City News Service contributed to this article.