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A software engineer sentenced to death in the 2012 Austin police officer Jaime Padron was found dead in his cell on Texas Death Row, officials said Sunday.
Authorities are investigating how 33-year-old Brandon Daniel died, according to a statement from the Texas Department of Justice. Officials, however, said foul play does not appear to be the cause.
TDCJ spokesman Robert Hurst said a Polunsky unit correctional officer in Livingston was conducting security rounds at 4:25 am on Saturday when he found Daniel “unresponsive on his bunk. The officers entered the cell and found that he was not breathing. “
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Paramedics arrived at the bunk a short time later, but Daniel was pronounced dead at 5:10 a.m., the statement said. As with all deaths in prison of a person who is not under medical supervision, the Inspector General investigates and an autopsy is performed.
Daniel shot Padron to death on April 6, 2012 while the two were fighting on the floor of a Wal-Mart near Interstate 35 and East Parmer Lane in North Austin. Padron, a Marine veteran and father of two girls, had responded to complaints from store clerks about a potentially drunk shoplifter.
Daniel was quickly arrested and police found a magazine with six hollow point bullets in his pocket and $ 57 worth of groceries, alcohol and other shop items in his backpack.
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At downtown police headquarters, Daniel told homicide investigators in a video interview that he went to the store to steal vegetables, but tried to escape when he saw the policeman. At least three times, witnesses said, he admitted: “I killed a police officer.”
The jury deliberated for an hour before finding Daniel guilty of capital murder in February 2014, and then took just eight hours of discussion before sentencing the former software engineer to death.
The next year, Daniel sent District Judge Brenda Kennedy a letter requesting that she waive his appeals.
“I want justice to be done and I think the punishment is appropriate for my crime,” he wrote. “We’re both interested in saving the taxpayer’s money, everyone’s time, and saving my family and the victim’s family more fear than necessary. And finally, I want my time in prison to be as short as possible. “
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But Daniel’s appeals continued. Most recently, in 2018, the US Supreme Court dismissed his appeal without comment after Daniel’s attorneys argued that Kennedy had, among other things, inappropriately communicated with jurors.
It is also said that his attorneys acted poorly during the trial for lack of evidence that Daniel was autistic. The diagnosis could have explained what prosecutors called Daniel’s lack of remorse and the use of drugs and alcohol for self-medication, which gave the jury a reason to choose life imprisonment over the death penalty, the appeal said.
No execution date had been set for Daniel.
A North Austin elementary school was named in honor of Padron, who was an officer in Austin for three years but worked for the San Angelo Police Department for 14 years.
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https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2021/10/31/brandon-daniel-found-dead-texas-death-row-cell/6226878001/
