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Inmate On San Quentin Death Row Since 1995 Dies Of Natural Causes

SAN QUENTIN (CBS / AP) -- State prisons officials say a San Quentin death row inmate convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles has died of natural causes.

California's Department of Corrections says 74-year-old Steven Michael Homick was pronounced dead Wednesday at 11:26 a.m. at a hospital near the prison.

Homick was sentenced to death by a Los Angeles County jury for the September 25, 1985 contract killings of Gerald Woodman, 67, and Vera Woodman, 63.

The couple was killed in an underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after a family gathering to celebrate the end of Yom Kippur.

Homick had been on death row since January 25, 1995.

The department says 65 condemned inmates have died from natural causes since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978. There are 749 people on California's death row.

© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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