Death row inmate Roberto Arguelles died Saturday while in the infirmary at the Utah State Prison from what prison officials said are "unknown causes."
Prison warden Clint Friel said Arguelles' death does not appear to be suspicious or a suicide. An autopsy will be conducted by the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office and the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office will conduct an investigation.
Arguelles had been scheduled to die by firing squad last June, but the execution was stayed after the Utah Department of Corrections asked that he undergo a competency evaluation. Arguelles had attempted suicide in 2000, hanging himself with a laundry bag.
On Saturday, guards at the prison began observation of Arguelles, 41, about 11:30 a.m. after he appeared pale and "didn't seem to be doing very good," Friel said. At 2:30 p.m., Arguelles was moved to the infirmary where he was under a physician's care until he stopped breathing shortly after 5 p.m., Friel said. Efforts to revive Arguelles were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 5:27 p.m.
Over the past several weeks, Arguelles had made visits to both the prison infirmary and University Hospital, Friel added. Privacy laws prevent prison officials from giving any specific details about Arguelles' health complaints.
In recent court appearances, Arguelles seemed incoherent and complained of multiple injuries to his spine and neck that he claimed a guard had inflicted upon him. Friel would not comment on those allegations.
Court documents filed last summer by attorney Karen Stam, who once represented Arguelles, indicated that the inmate had been routinely eating his own feces and foreign objects such as court documents.
Arguelles pleaded guilty to four counts of capital murder for the 1992 rapes, sexual assaults and murders of Stephanie Blundell, Lisa Martinez, Tuesday Roberts and Margo Bond. Blundell was 13, Martinez 16 and her friend Roberts 15 when they were killed. Bond, 42, was a janitor at John F. Kennedy Junior High. Arguelles was on parole from prison for another offense when he committed the murders.
Robert's father, Wade J. Roberts, said Saturday that he didn't really know how he felt about Arguelles' death.
"I don't feel satisfied," Wade Roberts said. "I wouldn't have felt satisfied if they would have executed him either because it wouldn't have brought my daughter back."
Attorney Ed Brass, who has been representing Arguelles for the purposes of the recently court-ordered competency evaluation, said he knew Arguelles had not been well for some time.
"I extend my condolences to his mother and to all the family members of the victims," said Brass, who has been on and off Arguelles' case since 1992. "I hope everyone can be at peace now."
But Tuesday Roberts' brother, Shawn Roberts, who is a Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy, said he doubts that is possible.
"I don't think there will ever be peace," Shawn Roberts said. "This is just one more event that's occurred in this tragedy."
E-MAIL: jdobner@desnews.com