A Death Row inmate sentenced for murdering a San Luis Obispo County family has died in prison. In 1987 Richard Allen Benson was found guilty of killing Laura Camargo and her three children, then setting fire to
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Richard Benson
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - Richard Allen Benson, who killed a San Luis Obispo County woman and her three young children, has died in prison.
Benson was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison and had been on death row since 1987. He was found unresponsive in his cell on Monday. He did not have a cellmate, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In January 1986, Benson molested, tortured, and killed Laura Camargo and her three children: Sterling, 23 months, Shawna, 3, and Stephanie, 4. He murdered Camargo with a hammer and then suffocated her infant son. Over the next two days he molested Camargo s daughters before killing them as well. He then set fire to the family s home. He was 38 at the time of the crimes.