55-year-old inmate convicted of 2 murders in 1998 dies on California’s death row

A 55-year-old man who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in Riverside County has died on death row, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Micky Ray Cage was found around 7 a.m. Wednesday in his cell at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, authorities said. His cause of death was not immediately clear.

In 2003, Cage was convicted of fatally shooting Brunilda Montanez, 50, and David Burgos, 16 in their Moreno Valley home five years earlier. Montanez and Burgos were Cage’s former mother-in-law and brother-in-law, respectively.

In the lead-up to the shootings, Cage, whose mother said he suffered from mental illness, had been looking for his ex-wife at Montanez’s house, according to trial testimony.

Cage’s death sentence was upheld by the California Supreme Court in 2015, which said in its opinion that Cage had a history of domestic violence.

A 2019 executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on all executions in the state. As of Wednesday, there were 664 people on death row in California.