• A California man serving life for four murders now faces charges in his wife’s prison death.
• Stephanie Dowells died during an overnight visit in November 2024 at Mule Creek State Prison.
• Her death, ruled a homicide by strangulation, marks the second such killing at the prison in months.

IONE, Calif. (TDR) — A convicted quadruple murderer, David Brinson, 55, has been charged with murdering his wife during an overnight family visit at Mule Creek State Prison, reviving concerns about prison safety after a second woman was killed in similar circumstances. Prosecutors allege Brinson strangled Stephanie Diane Dowells, 62, in November 2024, while serving four consecutive life terms without parole for a 1993 robbery spree that left four men dead.

The Fatal Visit

Shortly after 2 a.m. on November 13, 2024, Brinson alerted staff that his wife had “passed out.” Correctional officers and paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but Dowells was pronounced dead at 2:51 a.m. The Amador County District Attorney’s Office later ruled her death a homicide by strangulation, leading to Brinson’s murder charge announced August 13.

Dowells, a hairdresser from Inglewood, lived with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Her family declined direct comment but issued a statement through attorney Michael Oppenheimer:

“While nothing can bring Stephanie back to her family, this is the first step towards getting justice for her brutal murder. 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.”

A Pattern of Tragedy

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Authorities confirmed that Dowells was the second woman killed during a family visit at Mule Creek in less than six months. In July 2024, Tania Thomas, 47, was allegedly killed by her husband, Anthony Curry, a lifer convicted of attempted murder and carjacking. Curry has pleaded not guilty.

District Attorney Todd Riebe, who has overseen cases in Amador County for more than 25 years, called the back-to-back killings unprecedented violence. “These are the first violent acts during family visits at Mule Creek that I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Looking Ahead

Brinson is scheduled for arraignment September 19. He has not yet entered a plea. Meanwhile, prison officials face scrutiny over whether family visitation policies should continue unchanged. Critics argue the murders expose deep failures in corrections oversight and demand reforms.

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For Dowells’ family, the case represents both unbearable loss and a bitter demand for accountability in prison deaths.

Are overnight family visits a privilege too dangerous to continue in California’s prison system?

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