Oregon Murder and Rape Convict Dies in Prison

Barone has been on death row since 1995.

49-year old Cesar Barone Photos courtesy: crime.about.com & scenedecrime.blogs.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - A convicted Oregon murderer and rapist, 49-year old Cesar Barone, passed away at approximately 12:20 p.m. on Thursday, December 24, 2009, of natural causes in the Oregon State Penitentiary Infirmary, according to Michelle Whitney Dodson with the Oregon Dept. of Corrections.

The convict was locked up in the Department of Corrections on January 31, 1995, after Washington County courts found him guilty on six counts of Aggravated Murder, two counts of Murder, eight counts of first-degree Burglary, two counts of first-degree Attempted Sodomy, two counts of first-degree Attempted Rape, and one count of first-degree Sex Abuse.

Barone has been on death row since 1995.

Death Row Serial Killer

According to crime.about.com, Cesar Barone was convicted of the rape and murder of three women in the Portland area.

He was sentenced to 89-years for a fourth slaying. His apparent preference in crime victims was senior-aged women.

In April of 1991, Barone raped and strangled to death 61-year-old Margaret Schmidt, inside her home.

About six months later, in October 1992, Barone shot bullets into a car, wounding mid-wife, Martha Bryant, as she drove home from work from the Tuality Hospital in Hillsboro.

"He then sexually assaulted her and dragged her from her car onto the road. He ended his assault by shooting her in the head at close range, killing her", crime-about.com stated.

Barone's youngest known victim was from Portland. In December 1992, he beat and sexually assaulted 23-year old Chantee Woodman. He then shot the young woman to death, and left her body along U.S. 26 near Vernonia.

One of Barone's victims died of a heart attack. It was about a month after Chantee Woodman was murdered, in January 1993, when 51-year old Betty Williams was attacked by Barone inside her Portland apartment.

She died from a heart attack as Barone began sexually assaulting her. For this, Barone was sentenced to 89 years, and he received the death penalty for the slaying of Schmidt, Bryant, and Woodman.

Additional Victims?

"At the age of 19, Barone was suspected of raping and murdering by strangulation his 71-year-old neighbor, while she was in bed," crime.about.com reports.

"He was sentenced to two years of juvenile detention for previously attacking the same woman. Florida did not seek prosecution since he was already on death row in Oregon. Authorities also suspect he was responsible for the beating of his grandmother around that same time, although he was acquitted for that crime."

He managed to attack a female corrections officer while in prison.

In a Florida prison, he was the cellmate of Ted Bundy, after Bundy's final arrest in 1979.