SAN QUENTIN, Calif., July 20 (UPI) -- California corrections officials are investigating what appears to be the first overdose death of an inmate on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Nicholas Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Los Angeles gang member was found unconscious early July 10 in his 5-by-8-foot cell, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.
"We found a syringe and heroin, so we suspect it was that," prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon said.
Marin County Assistant Coroner Gary Tindel said his office was awaiting the results of toxicology tests before declaring a cause of death.
Rodriguez was sentenced to die in 2001 for shooting two teenagers to death while fleeing a robbery and for strangling a fellow gang member and gouging out his eyes before dumping the body in a canyon.
Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said 42 other death row inmates have committed suicide, been killed or died of natural causes during the state's nearly 30 years of record keeping.
