June, 2013 Proves To Be Deadly Month for California Prisoners

by Michael Brodheim

In unrelated incidents, two California prisoners were killed on the same day in June 2013, one at Wasco State Prison in Kern County, the other at the Lancaster State Prison in Los Angeles County.

According to a prison spokesman, Lt. Floyd Harl, on the morning of June 3, 2013, Angel Torres was killed in a melee involving about 40 prisoners on an exercise yard at Wasco State Prison.

Torres, 22, had arrived at the prison only three months earlier, following his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in Riverside County. He was serving an 11-year sentence.          

Initially, the cause of Torres’ death was not immediately clear. Prison officials indicated that all of the prisoners involved in the fighting at Wasco (on June 3^rd) were of the same ethnic origin (presumably Hispanic), but it was not known whether the fighting was gang-related.

Besides Torres, two other prisoners were seriously injured in the Wasco melee.

A guard fired a bullet in an attempt to get the prisoners on the yard to stop fighting, and a coroner later determined that bullet killed Torres.

In a second incident, Victor Jones was found dead on the floor of a dayroom at California State Prison – Los Angeles County. Though the death was originally thought to be the result of natural causes, officials quickly came to the conclusion that in fact Jones had suffered an unnatural fate – he had beaten to death.

Jones, 48, was serving a “three strikes” life sentence for Riverside County robbery conviction. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials are investigating his death as a homicide. An unidentified prisoner is being held as a suspect.

Source: Associated Press

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