Crime & Safety

Lafayette Killer Found Dead In San Quentin Cell

He's the second death row inmate found dead this week.

SAN QUENTIN, CA – A death row inmate who was convicted of a murder during a robbery at a home in Lafayette in 1998 died in his cell at San Quentin State Prison on Tuesday night, state prison officials said.

Joseph Perez Jr., 47, was found unresponsive in his cell at 9:11 p.m. and was pronounced dead 10 minutes later. An autopsy will be done to determine his cause of death, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Perez was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of Janet Daher, 46, on March 24, 1998.

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Investigators at the time said Perez and other suspects had taken a BART train to Lafayette to look for a home to steal from and ended up targeting Daher's residence. She was strangled and stabbed in her bedroom and about $20,000 in jewelry was stolen.

The suspects were found following the offering of a reward and an extensive publicity campaign by Daher's family and friends.

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Perez's death is the second in two days of death row inmates at San Quentin. Herminio Serna, 53, convicted of three murders in Santa Clara County, died at the prison on Monday.

Corrections Lt. Sam Robinson said along with autopsies, investigators are looking into whether the two inmate deaths are isolated or somehow connected.

The deaths follow two apparent suicides of death row inmates at San Quentin in early November, cases that investigators said were unrelated.

Robinson said, "It's pretty rare for this to happen in such a concentrated population in the course of just a month."

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By Bay City News Service / Image via Shutterstock

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