Mia Zapata's killer has died

Rolling Stone recently reported that Jesus Mezquia, the man convicted of raping and murdering Mia Zapata of The Gits, has died. He died in a hospital in Pierce County, Washington, on January 21st. No cause of death was given, but at the time, he was serving his 36 year sentence for the brutal crimes. As part of his statement to Rolling Stone, Gits drummer Steve Moriarty said, “He affected a lot of people in my life in a very negative way for many years. He was a profoundly distracting influence on my life for the last 25 years. Good riddance.”
Mezquia committed the crimes in 1993, but wasn't arrested until 2003, due to the expansion of DNA information banks around that time. Around then, police searched saliva samples from Zapata against the expanded database and found a match in Mezquia. He had his conviction overturned in 2005, but it was reinstated in 2009.