08 October 2018 :

Death row inmate Jonathan Fajardo killed in prison. Death row inmate fatally stabbed at San Quentin was responsible for sensational hate crime killing in Los Angeles. Fajardo, 30, Hispanic, was fatally stabbed by a fellow inmate at San Quentin State Prison on Friday. The stabbing death of Fajardo was the 1st slaying of a death row inmate in California in more than 20 years, officials said. He was stabbed in the chest and neck with an inmate-made weapon in a recreational yard of the cell house that holds the bulk of condemned inmates at the prison. Luis Rodriguez, 34, who was waiting execution on 2 counts of murder, is considered the suspect. On APRIL 22, 2011 (see) he was sentenced in the sensational hate crime killing of a 14-year-old black girl that highlighted racial tensions in Los Angeles. Fajardo was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the Dec. 15, 2006 fatal shooting of Cheryl Green, whose slaying a jury found was a hate crime motivated by her race. Fajardo was also convicted of participating in the death of 21-year-old Christopher Ash, a fellow gang member who prosecutors said was killed two weeks after Green's death because he was suspected of talking to police. Fajardo was a member of the 204th Street gang, a Latino gang that prosecutors said intimidated and attacked African Americans in Harbor Gateway. Most of the victims were not affiliated with a gang, police said. Green was killed and three others injured in the unprovoked attack. Fajardo later admitted to police that he shot Green but called it an accident, saying he was aiming for a group of black men standing nearby. Fajardo was 18 when he killed Green.