Another Prison Inmate From Tuolumne County Charged With Homicide

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Sonora, CA — For the second time in a two-week span, an inmate originally from Tuolumne County is accused of murdering a fellow state prisoner.

We reported earlier that 42-year-old Lawrence Adams was accused of murdering 64-year-old Robert Tunstall of Solano County at the Salinas Valley State prison on October 5. Adams, incarcerated out of Tuolumne County, allegedly used an “inmate-made weapon” to attack and kill Tunstall.

This past Friday there was also an alleged homicide at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville. Prison officials witnessed two inmates attack and kill prisoner Terrance Coleman, 51, from Yolo County.

One of the attackers was 39-year-old William Lutts who was incarcerated in 2004 out of Tuolumne County for “assault on a peace officer or firefighter,” with an enhancement for use of a firearm. He was initially sentenced to 18 years behind bars. In 2013 while still incarcerated, Lutts was convicted of battery causing serious injury, for a crime committed behind prison bars. Nine years were added to his original sentence. Then in March of this year, he was convicted of possessing and manufacturing a deadly weapon while incarcerated, adding to more years to the sentence.

The other inmate accused of killing Coleman this past Friday is 40-year-old Timothy Smith of San Joaquin County. He has been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder and other offenses.

Lutts suffered serious injuries in Friday’s incident and was transported to an outside hospital for further evaluation.