Where are California's most notorious killers? Learn who remains behind bars
California has seen its share of shocking murder cases over the past few decades, from serial killers and mass murderers to family homicides.
Some of the people convicted in these high-profile killings remain behind bars, while others have died or been released from prison.
The Sacramento Bee tracked down where some of California’s infamous inmates, including Scott Peterson and Paul Flores, are now:
Here are key takeaways:
- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023 decision to transform San Quentin from a maximum-security prison into a rehabilitation center led to the transfer of more than 500 death row inmates to different prisons across California, including serial killer Randy Kraft and the Trailside Killer, David Carpenter.
- Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy kidnapped 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991 and held her captive for 18 years in a San Francisco Bay Area backyard compound. Phillip Garrido is behind bars at an undisclosed California state prison. Nancy Garrido is serving her sentence at the California Institution for Women in Chino.
- Two of the three people convicted in the 1995 Satanic ritual killing of 15-year-old Elyse Pahler in San Luis Obispo County, Royce Casey and Jacob Delashmutt, were granted parole in 2025. Joseph Fiorella remains incarcerated at High Desert State Prison.
- Paul Flores was convicted of murdering Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart, who disappeared in 1996. He’s serving 25 years to life at California State Prison, Corcoran.
- Dana Ewell, who stood to inherit millions of dollars upon his parents’ deaths, plotted with a friend to murder his family in their Fresno home on Easter Sunday 1992. He and Joel Patrick Radovcich were both sentenced to life without parole. Radovcich is incarcerated at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton.
- Cary Stayner kidnapped and murdered three Yosemite National Park tourists in 1999 while working as a motel handyman. He’s now incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City.
- Mass murderer Marcus Wesson, who killed nine of his children at during a 2004 custody dispute standoff in Fresno, received the death penalty in 2005. He is now incarcerated at California Health Care Facility in Stockton at age 79.
- Modesto resident Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn child, had his death sentence revoked by the California Supreme Court in 2020 and was moved to Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County in 2022.
- Golden State Killer James DeAngelo was arrested in Sacramento in 2018 after DNA linked him to more than a dozen murders across 11 California counties. He pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 kidnappings in 2020 and received multiple consecutive life sentences. The current prison where he is incarcerated was listed as “not disclosable.”
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Where are California's most notorious killers? Learn who remains behind bars."
