SAN QUENTIN (KRON) – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has confirmed that Spencer Brasure, 49, was found dead in his cell at San Quentin in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The cause of his death is still pending per the results of an autopsy, but Brasure’s body was found at 12:49 a.m. and was later pronounced dead at 1:17 a.m.
Brasure grabbed headlines in 1996 when he was charged, and later convicted by a Ventura County jury in 1998, for the first degree murder of former child star Anthony Guest.
Details that appeared in court described Brasure kidnapping and brutally torturing the then 20-year-old Guest with co-conspirator Billy Davis.
Brasure and Davis stole a van, drove Guest to a remote location near Gorman, California, tortured him in various ways before lighting him on fire and left him to die.
Brasure was also found guilty of torture, kidnapping, arson, conspiracy, grand theft and three counts of threatening a witness, in addition to murder. Co-conspirator Davis was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 82 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, one was executed in Virginia, 14 have died from other causes and three – including Brasure – are pending a cause of death. There are currently 731 offenders on California’s death row.
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