Prison Inmate From Tuolumne County Accused Of Murder

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation seal

Soledad, CA — The California Department of Corrections is investigating a homicide that occurred behind bars at the Salinas Valley State Prison last week.

42-year-old Lawrence Adams is accused of attacking and killing 64-year-old Robert Tunstall while they were in a recreation yard. Investigators recovered an “inmate-made weapon” that was allegedly used by Adams.

CDCR reports that Adams was admitted to state prison in October of 2007 on a life sentence, with the possibility of parole, out of Tuolumne County. It was in relation to an arson (and it being a third-strike offense). While in prison, Adams was later charged with assault causing great bodily injury in 2009, and then assault with a deadly weapon, and manufacturing a deadly weapon as an inmate, in 2016.

Meanwhile, the prisoner killed, Tunstall, had been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. He was incarcerated in 1976 for a homicide that occurred in Solano County.

It is unclear what led to the alleged homicide.