State prison officials are investigating the homicide of an inmate who was serving life sentences for the murders of two Tucson women.
Apollo Ortega, 31, was found unresponsive in his housing unit at the prison in Florence on Monday, according to an Arizona Department of Corrections news release.
Prison staff attempted life saving measures on Ortega, but paramedics pronounced him dead, the release said.
The investigation into his death is ongoing.
Ortega was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in 2009 for the 2008 attacks on three Tucson women that occurred less than three weeks apart, according to Arizona Daily Star archives.
He was initially facing the death penalty in the slayings of two of the women, Norma Jean Conner, 52, and Magnolia Ortiz, 57, but Pima County prosecutors negotiated a plea agreement for the two life sentences.
Ortega told police he raped the three women and killed two of them because Satan told him to, and also "attributed the offenses to his drug and alcohol use," according to court documents.
