Convicted sex offender charged with killing suspect in high-profile Palm Springs murder case while in RivCo jail

A convicted sex offender accused of killing a previously convicted murderer in a downtown Riverside jail cell was charged today with murder.

Rodney Ronald Sanchez, 61, was arrested inside the Robert Presley Detention Center Tuesday following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the death of his cellmate, 41-year-old Kaushal Niroula.  

Sanchez made his initial court appearance Friday before Superior Court Judge Elaine Kiefer, who appointed him a public defender and scheduled his arraignment for Sept. 19 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.  

Sanchez was returned to the Robert Presley Jail, where he's being held on $1 million bail.  

According to sheriff's Sgt. Richard Carroll, about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, correctional deputies were alerted to an "unresponsive inmate'' in one of the cells.

Deputies and medical staff found Niroula unconscious and attempted lifesaving measures, which county fire paramedics took over a short time later, Carroll said. However, the inmate was pronounced dead at the scene.   

Central Homicide Unit detectives assumed the investigation and quickly identified Sanchez as the alleged perpetrator, the sergeant said.   

A possible motive, and the specific means by which the deadly assault occurred, were not disclosed.

Sanchez had been originally jailed more than five years ago, and since that time, he has been awaiting trial on multiple charges of repeatedly sexually assaulting a Riverside area girl under 14 years old in 2009 and 2010, according to court records.

He has prior convictions for forcible sodomy of a child, robbery, kidnapping, failing to register as a sex offender, vandalism and resisting arrest.

Niroula was convicted with three other men in 2012 of the financially motivated slaying four years earlier of a wealthy Palm Springs retiree. However, he was granted a retrial due to alleged judicial misconduct in his first trial.

Niroula was slated to appear for a pretrial conference Friday. However, the judge in his case dismissed all counts and voided the trial calendar after confirming he was deceased.