A man who pleaded guilty for his role in the brutal killing of Dystiny Myers died in state prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Cody Lane Miller, 25, died Saturday in his cell at California Correctional Institution, Tehachapi, according to corrections spokeswoman Krissi Khokhobashvili.
Miller did not have a cellmate, Khokhobashvili said.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office Coroner Section will conduct an autopsy, state prison officials said.
“The decedent was found unresponsive in his jail cell and pronounced dead at the scene,” Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ray Pruitt said Thursday. “A postmortem examination will be scheduled to determine cause and manner of death.”
The autopsy is tentatively scheduled for Monday, Pruitt said.
In 2013, Miller pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in connection with the slaying of Dystiny Myers, a 15-year-old from Santa Maria.
Miller, who was from Fresno, and four others were charged in the Sept. 26, 2010, killing of Myers whose partially burned body was found in rural San Luis Obispo County.
His guilty plea came a day after Miller backed out of a deal to testify in the trial of his two co-defendants. The second deal gave him a longer prison term.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.