A Victoria man who killed his estranged common-law wife two years ago has died at Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford.
Correctional Service Canada confirmed that Daniel Blake Penney died Sunday of apparent natural causes while in custody.
Emergency services were called but the inmate could not be resuscitated, the agency said Monday.
Since he was imprisoned on June 15 of this year, Penney, 54, had been serving a sentence that was to have lasted 12 years, seven months and 13 days for manslaughter.
Penney was charged with second-degree murder but accepted a deal that saw him plead guilty to manslaughter for the strangling death of Mary Caitlin Walton on March 13, 2015.
He killed Walton, 46, at the duplex the couple owned at 830 Queens Ave. He was under court-ordered instructions not to contact Walton following a domestic dispute a month earlier.
After driving to his Colwood home that day, he tried to kill himself by leaving his car running in a closed garage, where he ran an auto repair and hauling business.
Noticing that his car had been running, his 19-year-old daughter informed a tenant who called 911.
Two West Shore RCMP officers were exposed to fumes while rescuing Penney, who was rushed to hospital.
RCMP Cpl. Mitchell Fiddick and Const. Marc Julien received awards of valour for saving the unresponsive man in the exhaust-filled garage, causing them to suffer from carbon-monoxide exposure.
Correction Service Canada will review the circumstances of Penney’s death, and both the police and coroner have been notified.
