Second woman is strangled during an overnight visit at California prison
The family of a woman who died of strangulation during an overnight visit with her husband at a California prison is questioning why a man convicted of murdering four people was allowed to have family visits.
The family of a woman who died of strangulation during an overnight visit with her husband at a California prison is questioning why a man convicted of murdering four people was allowed to have family visits.
Stephanie Diane Dowells, 62, who also went by the name Stephanie Brinson, was killed in November, making her the second person in a year to die at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione during a family visit, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The other victim, Tania Thomas, 47, was also strangled during a family visit, Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe said in an interview Monday. The man she was visiting has been charged with murder in connection with her killing, Riebe said.
Stephanie Dowells.Family photoDowells, a hairdresser, was killed while visiting her husband, David Brinson, 54, who was convicted in the 1990s of murdering four men during a robbery, and sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
After Brinson called prison officials at 2:04 a.m. on Nov. 13 to tell them his wife had passed out, officers immediately began life-saving measures and called 911, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. But Dowells was pronounced dead a short time later.
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