PC World editor's murderer dies in prison dispute

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BCN) — A man serving a life sentence for the murder of a PC World editor has died in a prison brawl that is being investigated as a homicide, state corrections officials said Saturday.

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Darryl W. Hudson, 40, died Friday, a day after getting into a fight with five other inmates at California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Hudson was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2009 for killing PC World editor Rex Farrance and pistol-whipping his wife during a burglary in Pittsburgh.

Farrance, a senior technical editor at PC World magazine in San Francisco, was at home with his wife, Lenore van Tosh-Farrance, on Jan. 9, 2007, when a group of masked men kicked in the front door, Contra Costa County District Attorney Harold Jewett said during the trial. “Where's the money, bitch?” one of the men asked Tosh-Farrance, pistol-whipping her.

Jewett said one of the men, believed to be Hudson, shot Farrance once in the chest from three to four feet away. The men took Farrance's gun safe, some marijuana and a laptop. Jewett said the house was most likely the target because Farrance and his son were growing marijuana in the attic.

Hudson was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree premeditated murder and robbery, with enhanced punishment for use of a firearm and assault with a firearm. A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge declared the trial of Hudson's co-defendant Montrell Hall void after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked and unable to reach a verdict.

Prison officials said Hudson began fighting with Darryn W. Mayberry and four other inmates in a common room around 2:55 p.m. Thursday. Mayberry allegedly struck Hudson several times, causing him to lose consciousness, the Department of Corrections said.

Hudson was taken by ambulance to an outside medical facility, where he was pronounced dead Friday evening. No staff or other passengers were injured.

In 2021, while incarcerated, Hudson was sentenced by a Kern County court to seven years in prison for assault on a non-inmate, with an aggravated charge for aggravated assault, according to the Department of Corrections.

Mayberry and four other inmates were placed in special housing pending the completion of an investigation by the Sacramento City Jail Bureau of Investigation and the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.

Mayberry, 30, is serving a 10-year sentence for second-degree robbery as a second offender, with the sentence enhanced due to previous convictions. California State Prison, Sacramento is a maximum security prison in Folsom that houses about 1,990 inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.

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