A former death-row inmate who was charged in the 1999 murder of his wife and two step-daughters in Snoqualmie has died at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Dayva Michael Cross, 62, was found dead in a penitentiary shower on Sunday, March 13, officials said. His death is considered to be a homicide. The news was first reported by the Walla-Walla Union Bulletin.

Cross was convicted in June 2001 on three counts first-degree murder for the stabbing of his 37 year-old wife and two teenage step-daughters on March 6, 1999 at their Rening Road home in Snoqualmie.

Cross was later arrested after another of his step-daughters, who was 13 and being held captive at the home, managed to escape physically unharmed to call police.

Afterwards, Cross attempted suicide in his cell at the King County Jail, by shoving mattress stuffing down his nose and mouth. Paramedics rescued him, but he became paralyzed from the waist down.

Defense attorneys tried to argue in court that at the time of the homicide, Cross was suffering from depression and psychosis. Attorney’s also said he heard voices and sometimes thought he was the son of God.

A panel of 12 jurors decided Cross should receive the death penalty by lethal injection. Cross remained on death row for 18 years, but his sentence was converted to life in prison after the State Supreme Court ruled in 2018 the death penalty was unconstitutional.