Inmate Convicted Of 1978 Slaying Of CHP Officers In West Sacramento Dies
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say a prison inmate convicted decades ago of killing two California Highway Patrol officers in West Sacramento has died of natural causes.
Correctional Lt. Philip Bracamonte says 60-year-old inmate Luis Valenzuela Rodriguez died Thursday night at a hospital in Chula Vista.
He had been imprisoned at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
He was serving a life sentence in the fatal shootings of CHP officers William Freeman and Roy Blecher after a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in December 1978. Blecher was 50 and Freeman 35 when they died.
Rodriguez insisted at his sentencing that he was innocent, but asked a judge to sentence him to death. The judge initially complied, but reduced Rodriguez's death sentence to life without parole in 1991.
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