Two inmates on death row die by apparent suicide

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two condemned multiple murderers, including a serial killer, apparently died by suicide within hours of each other on the nation’s largest death row, California officials said Monday.

Corrections officials said they found Andrew Urdiales, 54, unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison late Friday.

He was sentenced to death on Oct. 5 by an Orange County judge for killing five women in California, and previously faced the death penalty for three murders in Illinois.

He had been on California’s death row since Oct. 12.

Separately, authorities say they found Virendra Govin, 51, unresponsive alone in his cell in a different death row housing unit late Sunday.

Govin was sentenced in December 2004 for committing four Los Angeles County murders.

Officials said that while both men’s deaths are being investigated as suicides, there is no indication that their deaths are related.

California has not executed anyone since 2006 and inmates are far more likely to die from suicide or old age.

There currently are 740 offenders on California’s death row.