The family of a woman who died of strangulation during a visit overnight with her husband in a prison in California wonders why a man convicted of murdering four people allowed her to have family visits.
Stephanie Diane Dowells, 62, who was also called Stephanie Brinson, was killed in November, turning her into the second person in a year to die in the state prison of Mule Creek in IONE during a family visit, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of California.
The other victim, Tania Thomas, 47, was also strangled during a family visit, said Amador County District, Todd Riebe, in an interview on Monday. The man who was visiting has been accused of murder in relation to his murder, Riebe said.
Dowells, a hairdresser, was killed while visiting her husband, David Brinson, 54, who was sentenced in the 1990s for killing four men during a robbery, and sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of probation.
After Brinson called prison officials at 2:04 am on November 13 to tell them that his wife had passed out, the officers immediately began saving lives and called 911, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of California said. But Dowells was declared dead a short time later.
Dowells’s murder remains under investigation by prison officials and the district prosecutor’s office, The spokesman said. Riebe said the charges are pending prison and autopsy reports.
The Amador County Sheriff’s office confirmed that he had been strangled and his death was a homicide.
Dowells’ son, Armand Torres, 28, and his wife, Nataly Jiménez, said that in the days after Dowells, Brinson’s story of the events continued to change, including the exact time and location where he found Dowells unconscious.
“He would say, you know, she passed out on the floor, or passed out in bed,” Jiménez said in an interview.
Dowells lived in Inglewood, California, with Torres, Jiménez and his 3 -year -old son, who called Brinson “Grandfather.”
Torres, Jiménez, his son and Dowells were very close, and the couple allowed the child to accompany Dowells on family visits to Mule Creek prison twice in recent years.
“If I could trust him with my son, I’m thinking, it’s a green light,” Torres said about Brinson. “You know, how everything is fine.”
He said his mother told him that his son had enjoyed the visits, which was enough for him to trust Brinson in his son.
Torres said he sometimes worried that his mother was with someone imprisoned, but tried to support him. He said he didn’t know that Brinson had been convicted of murdering four people.
“We really loved our mother, and we just wanted him to be happy, you know, and she usually returned happy,” he said. “They talked on the phone every day, everything seemed good. I am by second opportunities.
“If she was happy, I was happy,” he said.
Torres sometimes listened to his mother and Brinson arguing on the phone, said, but did not think much because couples sometimes fight, especially when a couple is imprisoned.
“Stephanie was always an indulgent person, and always tried to see the best in people,” Jiménez said. “Despite her background or anything, she always tried to see the good in them. That is what she did with her husband.”
Torres said his mother and Brinson met before he was born in 1996, and did not meet Brinson until 2016.
Thomas, the other victim, was found unconscious on July 1, 2024 in a family visits unit, where he spent time with his domestic partner, Anthony Curry, authorities said.
Curry, 48, is fulfilling life imprisonment at an attempt to intentionally discharge a firearm that causes large body injuries.
He was also sentenced to 13 years in prison for car theft with an improvement in the use of a firearm, a spokesman for the corrections department said.
Curry has been accused of murder in relation to Thomas’s death, but has not been prosecuted, Riebe said.
The California website of the Corrections and Rehabilitation says that some imprisoned people are eligible for family visits, which occur in private apartment facilities in prison land and last 30 to 40 hours.
Visits are intended to support positive family connections and successful rehabilitation, says the website. Inmates convicted of death and people convicted of sexual crimes are excluded, such as any low disciplinary restrictions, says the website.
“Family visits are a privilege, and imprisoned people must request and comply with the strict criteria of eligibility to be approved,” said a spokesman for the department. “Only those that demonstrate a good sustained behavior are considered and meet the specific requirements of the program.”
An online penitentiary operations manual says that inmates in family visitor rooms must be presented for a count for a minimum of four times in a 24 -hour period.
Torres said that the level of supervision does not matter, he believes that it should be higher, especially for prisoners with violent history.
“I want them to take some responsibility for this, the prison,” Torres said. “Because, what is preventing the next person from matheing his wife or son or no one?”
