Convicted serial killer, who fatally stabbed Lucerne Valley man, has died in custody
A convicted serial killer, who fatally stabbed a Lucerne Valley man and attacked several others, has died in custody.
On Monday evening, John Wayne Thomson, 64, was found unresponsive in his cell in the California Medical Facility hospice unit in Vacaville, between San Francisco and Sacramento.
Thomson was pronounced dead by medical staff around 5:55 p.m., according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The Solano County Coroner’s Office will determine Thomson’s cause of death.
A repeat offender caught
In August 2006, two Daily Press employees detained Thomson — a three-time convicted rapist — as he attempted to carjack a woman in an adjacent parking lot in Victorville.
Employees detained Thomson and used zip-ties to restrain him until San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, the Daily Press reported at the time.
Earlier that month, Thomson fatally stabbed Charles Hedlund, 55, of Lucerne Valley, who had stopped on the side of the road in the Cajon Pass to help Thomson whose vehicle became disabled.
Thomson stabbed Hedlund multiple times with a short blade and stole an unspecified amount of cash, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A few days after Hedlund's murder, Thomson attacked a 70-year-old man with a hammer, stole his car, and then attempted to steal vehicles from two other victims before being arrested in Victorville, the Daily Press reported.
Thomson sentenced
In August 2014, Thomson was sentenced to receive the death penalty for fatally stabbing Hedlund.
Judge Michael Smith heard and denied a motion for a new trial in a San Bernardino courtroom before sentencing Thomson to death, according to court records.
Thomson was found guilty by a jury in October 2013 of murder during the commission of second-degree robbery, aggravated mayhem, carjacking and attempted carjacking. He was recommended to receive the death penalty by a jury during a second penalty phase trial in December 2013.
Thomson was suspected of murdering Lori Hamm, 36, of Cowlitz County, Washington in July 2006 and was charged in connection with two other 2006 homicides in Washington which occurred within a month of Hedlund's death.
‘The harshest punishment’
Supervising Deputy District Attorney Robert Bulloch prosecuted the case.
"John Thomson is the reason why the death penalty is still relevant," Bulloch said in a 2014 news release from the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office. "He has served time in state prison repeatedly. While incarcerated, he was given every opportunity to be rehabilitated, but each time he got out, he committed even more violent and serious felonies.”
"And as this case demonstrated, even when he was locked up and facing murder charges and the death penalty, he continued to prey on society by soliciting the murders of three innocent people from jail. There is nothing else that society can do to stop Thomson, other than to give him the harshest punishment."
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that instituted a formal moratorium on all executions in California. Since then, state lawmakers have tried to dismantle the death row system.
This summer, San Quentin State Prison will be shuttered and all condemned prisoners will be relocated, according to the state.
All condemned inmates - nearly 400 - are being moved to different institutions in California where they'll be integrated into the general prison population, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The changes do not modify their sentences or convictions.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Convicted serial killer, who fatally stabbed Lucerne Valley man, has died
