Jerry T. Bunyard, who was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of his pregnant wife, passed away at the California State Prison in Sacramento. He spent more than 45 years on death row. Bunyard was 76 years old at the time of his death on July 10. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) confirmed the news.
“At 4:44 p.m., Bunyard was pronounced deceased at an outside medical facility by medical staff,” the CDCR stated in a press release. Officials await the Sacramento County Coroner’s report for the official cause of death.
Bunyard had been convicted of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Elaine Bunyard, and her unborn child. The incident occurred on November 1, 1979, at their San Joaquin County home, which they shared with their 7-year-old daughter. Elaine was killed by a shotgun blast to the head, causing the fetus to die due to a lack of oxygen shortly thereafter. Court records show that Bunyard had hired a childhood friend, Erwin Popham, to carry out the murders.
He also wanted to clear the way to be with his new girlfriend.
Popham, described as a drifter with a criminal background, initially refused Bunyard’s request. However, they eventually agreed on $1,000 to be paid after the murder, with more to follow from Elaine’s life insurance policy. The plan was to make the murder appear as a suicide.
Popham attacked Elaine in her kitchen, using frying pans to strike her head multiple times. He then dragged her to the garage and used Bunyard’s shotgun to shoot her. The initial plan of a staged suicide changed to a robbery when Popham realized the amount of blood at the scene made suicide staging unconvincing.
After committing the murder, Popham informed Bunyard at his construction job that “it was done,” as per the California Supreme Court’s review.
California currently has 567 inmates on death row. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order halting the death penalty, providing a temporary reprieve for all those sentenced to death.
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