The deaths of two men within 24 hours at California prisons are being investigated as homicides, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
The first death was reported Tuesday at California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom, and the second was reported Wednesday morning at Salinas Valley State Prison.
Around 2:50 p.m. Tuesday, two inmates attacked Felipe Rodriguez, 36, with “an inmate-made weapon on a maximum security general population yard,” corrections officials said.
Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 3:23 p.m.
He was serving multiple life sentences for attempted first-degree murder and kidnapping for ransom where the victim was killed, the department said in a release.
Investigators identified Selso E. Orozco Jr., 41, and Mike A. Calderon, 36, as suspects in his death.
Orozco is serving a 23-year sentence for several offenses including first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm and abusing/endangering the health of a child with an enhancement for use of a firearm.
Calderon is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and other offenses.
Shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Robert Turnstall, 64, was attacked by another inmate in a recreation yard at Salinas Valley State Prison, officials said. He was pronounced dead just after 9:20 a.m.
“Investigators recovered one inmate-made weapon and limited population movement on the yard to facilitate the investigation being conducted by SVSP’s Investigative Services Unit,” the corrections agency said.
Turnstall was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. He was admitted to the prison in 1976.
Lawrence Adams, 42, was identified as a suspect. He is serving multiple sentences including life with the possibility of parole for a third-strike arson offense and a 12-year sentence for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon.
The two incidents mark at least the second time this year that multiple killings have been reported at California prisons within a week.
In May, Sidney Kang, 31, and Alfredo Valenzuela, 50, were killed at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano within six days of each other.