FRESNO – Susan Russo, a woman convicted of arranging the 1994 murder of her husband, passed away of natural causes on Sept. 29, 2022, at 1:47 p.m. She was 67 years old. The Fresno County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office will determine her official cause of death.
Russo was assigned to Central California Women’s Facility and had been receiving medical treatment at a local medical facility since Aug. 16, 2022.
Russo was admitted from Fresno County on Oct. 15, 1996, to serve life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. Her conviction for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder was stayed. She was also sentenced to serve six years for soliciting another to commit or join in the commission of murder, to be served concurrently.
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. commuted her sentence to 25 years to life in April 2017, which enabled her to have parole suitability hearings. Russo was found suitable for parole on Jan. 25, 2018; however, the governor reversed the parole grant on June 8, 2018.
Contact: CDCR Press Office, opec@cdcr.ca.gov or (916) 445-4950
