Inmate Found Dead in His Cell

A Long Beach high school teacher sentenced to prison for murdering his lover, a former classroom aide, was found dead Thursday on his county jail cell bunk with self-inflicted cuts to his neck, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Pedro Tepoz-Leon, 35, was found at 5 a.m. and declared dead at the scene in the downtown Los Angeles Twin Towers correctional facility, the department said.

Tepoz-Leon, once described by students as easygoing and popular, had been returned to the jail late Wednesday after receiving a 26-years-to-life prison term for the murder of his girlfriend, Mayra Mora Lopez, 19. A jury deliberated less than an hour before convicting Tepoz-Leon, who on Oct. 24, 2002, strangled and beat Lopez and cut her neck five times in their Long Beach apartment.

The Sheriff’s Department released a brief statement on the death that did not address when it was that Tepoz-Leon had injured himself, whether other inmates were sleeping in the cell at the time, or whether he had been on suicide watch. The sheriff’s homicide unit is investigating the death.

Tepoz-Leon had a history of cutting himself. After killing Lopez, he inflicted what authorities called superficial cuts on his neck and upper chest. Tepoz-Leon had insisted that Lopez had stabbed him during an argument.

In 1990, Tepoz-Leon slashed himself after he attacked a former girlfriend. Long Beach police found him in a bathtub, one of his wrists cut. He was convicted of misdemeanor battery for that beating.

A Spanish teacher and girls soccer coach at Woodrow Wilson High, Tepoz-Leon was hired by the Long Beach Unified School District in 1992 as a teacher’s aide. In his job application, he disclosed his conviction for misdemeanor battery and a 90-day jail sentence, but lied about the fact that he was still on probation.