Santa Barbara man who pleaded guilty to murder, then got married in same courtroom, dies in San Quentin
Joshua Miracle, 43, pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in 2005.
SAN QUENTIN — Prison officials are investigating the death of a Santa Barbara man who was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to a gang-related murder 16 years ago.
Joshua Miracle, 43, died after being moved to a hospital from his San Quentin prison cell, officials announced Monday. A news release by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation makes no mention of a suspected cause of death. Miracle was pronounced dead around 7 p.m. Sunday.
Miracle was sentenced to death in February 2006, months after he pleaded guilty to murdering Goleta resident Elias Raymond Silva in a 2004 stabbing death. At the time of the murder, Miracle had an active arrest warrant for an attempted murder, authorities said at the time.
A California Supreme Court decision says Silva was lured to a Santa Barbara residence and stabbed 48 times. Authorities said at the time Miracle was part of a Santa Barbara-based subset of a large Southern California gang, as evidenced by a tattoo of the gang’s initials on the back of his head.
Miracle pleaded guilty to murder and assault in 2005 with no plea deal in place, and minutes later got married to his longtime girlfriend in the very same courtroom, according to media reports. Three months earlier, he fired his attorney who wanted him to take the case to trial instead.
In 2018, the state Supreme Court case upheld the superior court’s acceptance of Miracle’s guilty plea, though one justice dissented. At issue was whether a defendant could legally plead guilty to a potential death penalty case without an attorney.
According to CDCR’s website, 28 people have died of COVID-19 in San Quentin since the beginning of the pandemic. That number has not changed since late 2020. The prison has reported nine new positive cases over the past 14 days.