One Riverside County inmate kills another, sheriff says; jail deaths continue after violent 2022
A man was killed by a fellow inmate at the Riverside County jail in Murrieta last week, the sheriff's department reported, continuing a string of deaths in that jail starting last year.
It's the first publicly reported death of an inmate for the year, after a record-breaking year in 2022, when 18 inmates died in the county's jails, the most of any year according to public data going back more than a decade.
Deputies working at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center were alerted about an altercation inside a cell early the morning of Jan. 12, according to a department news release. Deputies found Mark A. Spratt, 24, of Fontana, unresponsive in the cell.
"Medical aid was summoned and Spratt was transported to a nearby hospital for medical care where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased by medical personnel," read the department's news release.
Micky R. Payne, 33, of Perris, who was also in custody at the jail, was arrested.
Spratt had been arrested two days before in Jurupa Valley and was being held on $10,000 bail for fraud charges, jail records show. It was the first criminal case filed against him in the county, according to records.
Payne has an extensive criminal history in the county dating back to 2013, including convictions for battery, assault with a deadly weapon and domestic assault. He was most recently arrested in December on an assault charge.
Kaushal Niroula was killed by a cellmate in the same Murrieta jail on Sept. 6, 2022, while awaiting trial in the killing of a Palm Springs man in 2008. Rodney Ronald Sanchez, his cellmate, later pleaded guilty to murder. Eight inmates have died at that facility alone since May 2022, one fewer than the nine who died in all of the county's jails combined in 2021.
From 2005 to the 2021, the county averaged seven inmate deaths a year.
Deaths of inmates have been a topic of increasing concern recently in the region, after San Diego County was investigated by the California State Auditor when 18 inmates died in that county's jails in 2021.
Families of the deceased in Riverside County and the ACLU have similarly called for an outside investigation of the deaths, claiming the sheriff's department is not providing them and the general public with timely and adequate information about what is causing the fatalities and what is being done to stop the death toll.
Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Inmate kills another in Murrieta jail, Riverside County sheriff says
