Death row inmate, 94, dies of natural causes

FLORENCE - The oldest death row inmate in the US has died of natural causes at age 94.

An Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman says Viva Leroy Nash died late Friday at the state's prison complex in Florence.

Nash was still on death row, but spokesman Barrett Marson said he did not know if Nash died in his cell or in a medical facility at the prison.

Nash was born in 1915 and had a criminal record dating to the 1930s.

He spent 25 years in prison for shooting a Connecticut police officer in 1947, and was sentenced to life in prison for shooting a man to death in Salt Lake City in 1977.

But he escaped from a prison work crew in October 1982 and fatally shot a Phoenix coin shop sales clerk a month later.

He was sentenced to death for that crime.

- AP