Inmate on death row for decades old murders dies at the hospital
An 81-year-old inmate who killed two people on the UC Santa Cruz campus decades ago has died.
California officials said Royal Hayes died Tuesday at a hospital outside San Quentin. His cause of death is awaiting results of an autopsy.
Hayes was awaiting execution for two murders he committed in December 1981. He was sentenced to death in 1986.
Investigators said Hayes lured Lauren de Laet and Donald MacVicar separately to a remote location on the UCSC campus on the pretext of giving them cocaine to repay a debt.
He told the victims they needed to be searched and then he shot them in the back of the head.
He buried the dismembered bodies in previously dug shallow graves.
California hasn’t executed anyone since 2006.
