XPost: alt.california, talk.politics.guns, alt.prisons
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/second-woman-strangled-overnight- visit-california-prison-rcna197785
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.
Dowells, 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.
Dowells’ killing remains under investigation by prison officials and the district attorney’s office, the spokesperson said. Riebe said charges are pending prison and autopsy reports.
The Amador County Sheriff’s Office confirmed she had been strangled and
her death was a homicide.
Dowells’ son, Armand Torres, 28, and his wife, Nataly Jimenez, said that
in the days after Dowells’ death, Brinson’s account of events kept
changing, including the exact time and location where he found Dowells unconscious.
“He would say, you know, she passed out on the floor, or she was passed
out on the bed,” Jimenez said in an interview.
Dowells lived in Inglewood, California, with Torres, Jimenez and their 3- year-old son, who called Brinson “Grandpa.”
Torres, Jimenez, their son and Dowells were all very close, and the couple allowed the boy to accompany Dowells on family visits to Mule Creek Prison twice in the last couple of years.
“If I could trust him with my kid, I’m thinking, it’s a green light,”
Torres said of Brinson. “You know, like, everything’s fine.”
He said his mother told him his son had enjoyed the visits, which was
enough assurance for him to trust Brinson around his son.
Torres said he sometimes worried about his mom being with someone who was incarcerated, but he tried to be supportive. He said he was unaware that Brinson had been convicted of murdering four people.
“We really love our mom, and we just wanted her to be happy, you know, and
she usually came back happy,” he said. “They talked on the phone every
day, everything seemed good. I’m all for second chances.
“If she was happy, I was happy,” he said.
Torres would sometimes overhear his mother and Brinson arguing on the
phone, he said, but he didn’t think much of it because couples sometimes quarrel, especially when one partner is incarcerated.
“Stephanie was always a forgiving person, and she always tried to see the better in people,” Jimenez said. “Despite their background or anything,
she would always try to see the good in them. That’s what she did with her husband.”
Torres said his mother and Brinson met before he was born in 1996, and he didn’t meet Brinson until about 2016.
Thomas, the other victim, was found unconscious on July 1, 2024, in a
family visiting unit, where she was spending time with her domestic
partner, Anthony Curry, officials said.
Curry, 48, is serving a life sentence for attempted second-degree murder
with an enhancement of intentionally discharging a firearm causing great
bodily injury.
He was also sentenced to 13 years in prison for carjacking with an
enhancement of using a firearm, a Department of Corrections spokesperson
said.
Curry has been charged with murder in connection with Thomas’ death, but
has not been arraigned, Riebe said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website says
some incarcerated people are eligible for family visits, which occur in private, apartment-like facilities on prison grounds and last from 30 to
40 hours.
The visits are intended to support positive family connections and
successful rehabilitation, the website says. Death row inmates and people convicted of sex offenses are excluded, as is anyone under disciplinary restrictions, the website says.
“The family visits are a privilege, and incarcerated persons must apply
and meet strict eligibility criteria to be approved,” a department
spokesperson said. “Only those who demonstrate sustained good behavior and
meet specific program requirements are considered.”
An online prison operations manual says inmates in family-visiting
quarters have to present themselves for a count a minimum of four times in
a 24-hour period.
Torres said that no matter the level of supervision, he believes it should
be higher, especially for prisoners with violent histories.
“I want them to take some accountability for this, the prison,” Torres
said. “Because what’s stopping the next person from killing their wife or
son or anybody?”
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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
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