Calif. death row inmate convicted of Vegas, L.A. murders dies

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — A San Quentin death row inmate convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles and three Las Vegas murders the same year died Wednesday of natural causes, state prison officials said.

California’s Department of Corrections said 74-year-old Steven Michael Homick was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. at a hospital near the prison.

Homick was sentenced to death by a Los Angeles County jury for the Sept. 25, 1985, contract killings of Gerald Woodman, 67, and Vera Woodman, 63.

Homick also was convicted of three homicides in Las Vegas — the Dec. 11, 1985, murders of Bobbie Jean Tipton and Marie Bullock in Tipton’s home, and the murder of James Meyers, who came to the house during the robbery.

In the California case, the couple were killed in an underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after returning from a family gathering to celebrate the end of Yom Kippur.

Prosecutors said the couple’s two sons hired Homick and his brother, Robert Homick, to kill their parents in hopes of collecting on their mother’s $500,000 insurance policy and saving a plastics manufacturing firm founded by their father.

Steven Homick was convicted of being the triggerman. He had been on death row since January 25, 1995. His brother is serving life without parole.

The department said 65 condemned inmates have died from natural causes since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978.

There are 749 people on California’s death row.