A 55-year-old man, David Brinson, a convicted murderer serving four consecutive life terms, allegedly strangled his wife, Stephanie Diane Dowells, to death while she visited him in prison.
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According to PEOPLE, citing Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe, the incident occurred back on November 13, 2024. At the Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, Brinson called prison officials at around 2 a.m., saying that his wife had passed out.
While life-saving measures were attempted, Dowells was pronounced dead at 2:51 a.m. Her death, however, was ruled to be a homicide by strangulation, months after the incident occurred.
Back in 1993, Brinson was served with four consecutive life sentences for murdering four people during a robbery. He was serving his time when Dowells arrived at the Ione prison for an unsupervised overnight visit.
Unsupervised Conjugal Visit
As reported by KCRA, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) only prohibits conjugal visits in specific cases. These include Death Row inmates, convicted sex offenders, inmates being processed upon reception, and inmates under disciplinary restrictions.
There is no mention of inmates convicted of violent crimes.
Furthermore, the conjugal visits can last up to 40 hours, as per the CDCR, and take place “in private, apartment-like facilities on prison grounds.” They are mostly unsupervised.
On August 13, 2025, David Brinson was charged with murder. He has not entered a plea and will be arraigned on September 19.
Dowells’ family shared a statement through their attorney, addressing her murder and Brinson’s recent murder charge.
“While nothing can bring Stephanie back to her family, this is the first step towards getting justice for her brutal murder,” the statement read. We thank the District Attorney for doing the right thing. This and other murders should have never happened and could have been prevented by the State of California.”
As reported by PEOPLE, Dowells’ homicide occurred just months after 47-year-old Tania Thomas was allegedly murdered by her husband, Anthony Curry, during a family visit.
Curry was serving a life sentence for second-degree attempted murder and 13 years for carjacking at the time. He was charged with murder in his wife’s death and has since pleaded not guilty.