A man serving time in prison after the killing of a convenience store clerk in Mesa in 2015 has reportedly died.
The Arizona Department of Corrections said Monday that Apolinar Altamirano, 39, had died at a hospital on April 19, 2025. He had been serving time at ASPC-Lewis.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner is investigating the death. His cause of death was not immediately available from officials.
In 2022, Altamirano was sentenced to more than 38 years in prison after the shooting death of 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck.
Altamirano was an undocumented immigrant who was awaiting deportation proceedings when he shot and killed Ronnebeck, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The murder of Ronnebeck became front-and-center in the national debate over immigration policy, and Grant's dad, Steve Ronnebeck, became part of Donald Trump's "angel families."
See past coverage from the case in the video player above.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office tried to make this a death penalty case, and the hearings and appeals on the issue dragged on for years.
