A former Twentynine Palms Marine who was sentenced to death last month for killing five women in Southern California decades ago was found dead in his cell Friday night at San Quentin State Prison. Officials at San Quentin prison said that Andrew Urdiales, 54, was found “unresponsive” in the Adjustment Center (where new prisoners are housed until they are processed) about 11:15 p.m. Friday, and was pronounced dead one minute after midnight Saturday. Urdiales was alone in his cell and his death is being investigated as a suicide. Andrew Urdiales was convicted in May 2018 of killing Robbin Brandley in Mission Viejo in 1986, Mary Ann Wells in San Diego and Julie McGhee in Cathedral City in 1988, Tammie Erwin in Palm Springs in 1989, and Denise Maney, also in Palm Springs in 1995. Urdiales was a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms at the time of four of the murders. He was also convicted of killing three women in Chicago in 1996.
