Curtis Price, Reputed Aryan Brotherhood Hitman, Dies on California's Death Row
A reputed hitman for the Aryan Brotherhood gang has died aged 74 while awaiting execution on California's death row.
Curtis Floyd Price died of natural causes shortly before 2 a.m. on Monday at San Quentin State Prison, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said in a news release.
Officials didn't say if his death was connected to the recent COVID outbreak at the prison. The exact cause of death will be determined by the Marin County Coroner, the CDCR said in the release.
He was sentenced to death in 1986 for the 1983 killings of Richard Barnes and Elizabeth Ann Hickey.
Prosecutors said Barnes was killed because his son, Steven Barnes, had dropped out of the Aryan Brotherhood and agreed to testify against other gang members. Prison authorities had placed Steven Barnes in protective custody, so the gang settled for killing members of his immediate family instead.
Price had been released from the Montana state prison in September 1982, according to court documents. Prosecutors said Aryan Brotherhood leaders offered him the "contract" to kill Richard Barnes and he accepted.
His body was discovered in the bedroom of his Los Angeles County residence on February 13, 1983, with three gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
Days later, Hickey, who knew of Price's involvement in the Barnes killing, was beaten to death inside a Humboldt County home and guns inside the residence were stolen.
Price was also convicted of an armed robbery at the Triplex Theater in Humboldt County that took place on February 19, 1983, the same day that Hickey's body was discovered.
Price had an appeal of his conviction pending in federal court at the time of his death, according to The Mercury News.
His attorneys argued that prosecutors had committed serious misconduct and that the case was based on the word of Michael Thompson, a reputed Aryan Brotherhood leader who left the gang and agreed to testify against Price.
Price is the third condemned inmate to die in California in the past month.
His death comes after inmate Donald R. Millwee died of natural causes last month. Millwee, 68, had been housed at a state prison in Corcoran, but died in an outside hospital on July 27, the CDCR said.
Days before that, Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer known for his 1978 appearance on the TV show The Dating Game, died of natural causes at the age of 77 in a hospital in Kings County.
There are 698 inmates on California's death row, but the state hasn't executed anyone since 2006. Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a moratorium on capital punishment in 2019.
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