Los Angeles, Ca
Convicted killer who twice avoided execution dies in California prison
A man who was twice sentenced to execution and twice avoided that fate died in a prison hospital over the weekend.
Darryl T. Kemp, 88, died of natural causes Saturday at the California Medical Facility in Solano County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Kemp was one of more than 600 inmates in the California penal system who was sentenced to death but was instead made to wait out their natural life after the state put a permanent freeze on prison executions.
Kemp, originally from Los Angeles, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009, found responsible for the 1978 rape and killing of 40-year-old Armida Wiltsey at a reservoir in Contra Costa County.
For Kemp, it was the second time he’d been convicted of rape and murder and then sentenced to death.
In 1960, he was found guilty of killing and raping Los Angeles nurse Marjorie Hipperson. He was sentenced to death following that trial, and waited execution for the next decade.
But in 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional and his sentence was then modified to life with the possibility of parole.
In July, 1978, he was released on parole after serving his full sentence “as defined by the law.”
Weeks later, at Lafayette Reservoir, he would go on murder Wiltsey, who died by either strangulation or suffocation. A little more than two years after that, he fulfilled the terms of his parole and walked free.
He was connected to the Wiltsey’s long-unsolved killing decades later through DNA technology.
During his 2009 trial, in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, Kemp’s defense attorneys argued that he suffered from mental illness that compelled him to rape, and that the killings were the accidental result of sexual assaults in which he restricted his victim’s airflow, according to reporting from the East Bay Times.
The gambit did not pay off and, despite his advanced age, a jury recommended he be executed—a sentence that twice was never fulfilled.
There are currently 611 remaining inmates on death row in California. For more information about the state’s capital punishment, click here.
A former Riverside County man was found guilty of sex trafficking a female victim and forcing her to engage in commercial sex acts along L.A.’s notorious Figueroa Corridor.
Elias Abdul Shabazz, 34, formerly of Perris, was found guilty by a jury following a five-day trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors said Shabazz had led the victim to believe they were in a romantic relationship before he turned physically and sexually violent. He began demanding that the victim engage in commercial sex acts from May to October of 2021, court documents said.
He carried a handgun with him and, on occasion, was accused of using it to pistol-whip the victim. He also fired the gun at her feet while threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.
At trial, the victim said Shabazz demanded that she meet a daily quota of commercial sex proceeds and that she was terrified of the consequences of not meeting that quota.
She testified that Shabazz compelled her to work in the notorious Figueroa Corridor in South L.A., a dangerous area known for human trafficking and prostitution.
Shabazz had confiscated her identification card, Social Security card and birth certificate. He constantly monitored her cell phone to stop her from communicating with any friends or family.
“He also introduced her to addictive narcotics and controlled every aspect of her life, including when she ate, slept and showered,” prosecutors said.
In May 2025, Shabazz was arrested and has remained in federal custody. His last known address at the time was in Washington, D.C.
On June 26, 2026, Shabazz was found guilty of one count of coercing or enticing interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6, where he faces 15 years to life in prison.
“Sex trafficking matters rank among the most tragic cases our office prosecutes,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “This defendant will now face many years in a federal prison cell for his sick, disgusting, and disturbing behavior.”
“Elias Shabazz preyed on a vulnerable victim using physical and sexual violence and cruel psychological coercion to compel commercial sex acts for his own profit,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “There is no place for this type of conduct in civilized society. We deeply respect the victim’s courage to face her trafficker in court. The Criminal Division will continue to bring these cases and try them.”
Anyone with information about human trafficking can report tips to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888
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