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Multiple Murderer Dies Of Natural Causes After 28 Years On California's Death Row

VACAVILLE (CBS SF) -- A man who was on death row for killing three store clerks during a robbery spree three decades ago in Southern California has died of natural causes at a prison hospital in Vacaville, according to the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Teofilo Medina Jr., 70, was pronounced dead at 7:30 a.m. Sunday at California Medical Facility while on hospice care, state prison officials said.

Medina had been on death row since March 7, 1987, after he was sentenced for a 1984 crime spree in Orange and Riverside counties that resulted in the death of three convenience store and gas station clerks, according to prison officials.

The killings took place less than three months after Medina had finished serving a prison term in Arizona for rape.

He had also received a death sentence for killing a fourth person in Riverside County.

According to state prison officials, 67 condemned inmates have died from natural causes since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment.
There are currently 751 people on the state's death row.

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