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Two California Prisoners Accused of Strangling Conjugal Visitors

Loaded on May 1, 2025 published in Prison Legal News May, 2025, page 55
Filed under: Prisoner-Visitor Assault, Extended Family Visiting. Location: California.

The death of a woman during a conjugal visit with her husband incarcerated at California’s Mule Creek State Prison was ruled a homicide by the Coroner’s Bureau of the Amador County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) on March 17, 2025. David Brinson, 54, who is serving four life sentences at the lockup for a 1990 quadruple homicide, is now suspected of killing his wife, Stephanie Diane Dowells, 62, during her overnight visit in November 2024.

The prisoner alerted state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) guards that she was in distress at 2:04 a.m. on November 13, 2024; they responded and attempted life-saving measures that failed, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Feb. 2025, p.62.] Armand Torres, the son of Dowells—who also went by Stephanie Brinson— questioned why she was left unsupervised with a violent offender, but CDCR officials said that the prisoner had met all eligibility criteria for the overnight stay.

Dowells was the second woman strangled during a conjugal visit at the prison in the same year. Tania Thomas, 47, was found unconscious in the family visiting unit on July 1, 2024, the last day of a four-day visit with her incarcerated partner, Anthony Curry, 48. He also notified guards that she had a medical emergency. The ACSO Coroner’s Bureau ruled in December 2024 that the death was a homicide, too.

Curry, who is serving a life sentence for carjacking and murder, has since been moved to Pelican Bay State Prison, CDCR said. He was arraigned on a charge of murder in Thomas’ death in Amador County Superior Court on April 4, 2025. County District Attorney Todd Riebe said that Brinson is also being considered for charges in Dowell’s murder, but none had yet been filed as of April 17, 2025.

CDCR said that “[o]nly those [prisoners] who demonstrate sustained good behavior and meet specific program requirements are considered” for family visits, which are scheduled in an apartment built on the prison grounds.  

Sources: KCRA, Los Angeles Times, NBC News USA Today

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