RIVERSIDE — A condemned inmate who held a 16-year-old girl captive for weeks in Jurupa Valley, sexually assaulting and torturing her until directing his accomplice to execute the victim, died in a state prison hospice ward, authorities said Tuesday. Michael Forrest Thornton, 68, of Rialto, was at California Medical Facility in Vacaville when he was pronounced dead Monday from an undisclosed terminal illness. Thornton had been moved to the hospice unit from San Quentin State Prison’s Death Row on a date not provided by the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation. Handout photo of Las Vegas teenager Michelle Curran, left, and her older sister Tiffani, right, in a family photo. Michelle’s body was found in a Rubidoux, Calif. horse trailer in April 2001 after she’d been raped, tortured and shot in the head. (Courtesy photo) Michelle Marshall, an acquaintance of Michelle Curran, talks about the missing person flyer that was posted of Michelle Curran of Las Vegas after Curran disappeared in early April 2001. (File photo by staff photographer Silvia Flores) Murder defendant Janeen Snyder sits in Riverside Superior Court during a preliminary hearing in 2001. (File photo by staff photographer David Bauman) Janeen Snyder, and Michael Thornton (background) during recess in their trial in Department 44 at Riverside Superior Court in January 2006. (File photo by staff photographer Kurt Miller) Michael Thornton during recess in the 2006 trial for he and Janeen Snyder in Department 44 at Riverside Superior Court. (File photo by staff photographer Kurt Miller) Show Caption1 of 5Handout photo of Las Vegas teenager Michelle Curran, left, and her older sister Tiffani, right, in a family photo. Michelle’s body was found in a Rubidoux, Calif. horse trailer in April 2001 after she’d been raped, tortured and shot in the head. (Courtesy photo) Expand In March 2006, Thornton and his co-defendant and girlfriend, now-44-year-old Janeen Marie Snyder, also of Rialto, were both convicted of first-degree murder, attempted sodomy and special circumstance allegations of torturing the victim, killing in the course of a burglary, killing in the course of a sexual assault and killing in the course of a kidnapping. Snyder was additionally convicted of sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations. After a penalty trial that concluded two months later, a six-man, six-woman jury recommended capital punishment for both defendants, which then-Riverside County Superior Court Judge Paul Zellerbach affirmed. Snyder is incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. The pair were notorious for abusing girls and young women, luring them to Thornton’s party pads on the promise of copious free drugs, according to trial testimony. Thornton had once owned a chain of beauty salons before becoming a methamphetamine addict, and Snyder became his partner after his marriage fell apart, testimony revealed. She was put to work finding vulnerable victims, luring them to Snyder’s lairs, prosecutors said. The pair abducted Michelle Curran of Las Vegas, who had disappeared in April 2001, using her as an object of sexual abuse and torture for roughly three weeks, during which time she was tied up and restrained, according to testimony. Thornton and Snyder gave the teenager drugs, intimidated her with firearms and sexually exploited her, Zellerbach said during sentencing. When Thornton became weary of Curran, he directed Snyder to dispose of the teenager, prosecutors said. The youth’s nude body was discovered in a Jurupa Valley storage shed on April 17, 2001. The ensuing sheriff’s investigation ultimately led to Thornton and Snyder as the perpetrators, and they were arrested and charged a week later. Authorities believed the assault was part of a long string of attacks. During sentencing, Zellerbach mentioned other girls that the couple were suspected of stalking and assaulting. Press-Enterprise staff writer Andrea Klick contributed to this story. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Man arrested in father’s killing in the San Gabriel Mountains Crime and Public Safety | Man fatally shot in Pomona Crime and Public Safety | Pomona man accused of killing father was on probation for elder abuse Crime and Public Safety | Man beaten to death in Jurupa Valley; attacker on the loose Crime and Public Safety | Man arrested in shooting death outside Walmart in Hemet