Inmate’s death at Northern California prison being investigated as a homicide, CDCR says
Authorities said the death of an inmate Thursday at a state prison in Lassen County is being investigated as a homicide after he was found unresponsive in his cell, corrections officials said.
Guards found Hector Hernandez unconscious at 12:34 a.m. as they were completing rounds at High Desert State Prison in Susanville. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in a news release did not say how Hernandez died and a coroner’s report on his death was pending.
State prison staff administered aid to Hernandez before he was sent to the prison’s triage area. At 1:02 a.m., Hernandez was pronounced dead by medical staff separate from the prison, CDCR said.
Hernandez, 33, was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for two counts of first-degree murder and the use of a firearm after a recent conviction in Los Angeles County. He had been in the Northern California facility since April 19, CDCR said.
He shared a cell with Jonathan Gonzalez, also received by CDCR from Los Angeles County. Gonzalez did not appear on CDCR’s inmate locator as of Friday, but officials said he was transferred to restricted housing while the investigation took place.
Gonzalez, 36, is serving a 28-year sentence that began in 2016 for attempted robbery, extortion by means of force, intimidation of witnesses and other felonies. While incarcerated, according to CDCR officials, Gonzalez was found with a deadly weapon and convicted of a second strike.
The cell the men shared will remain “locked” and unused by other inmates while the Lassen County District Attorney’s Office investigates the death.
