Sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend and her husband, Deyell immediately befriended Shirley Billinger. He felt her loss the strongest after her execution, and he even helped out death row inmate Nat Ginzburg (for all the good it did him since Ginzburg was dead within a week). Inmate Mark Miles drove Deyell to the point where he broke his own hand, and Deyell dug a tunnel into Miles's cell and strangled him to death.

2001

When William Giles was sent to death row, Deyell was happy to at last have some company. Giles had developed a scheme to stay alive, inspiring Deyell to come up with his own: he offered to donate his organs after his death. While he was being transported to the hospital, he attempted to escape from the van and was killed.