FOLSOM, California — California prison officials are investigating the death of a 39-year-old incarcerated man at California State Prison, Sacramento as a homicide, after correctional staff say they watched two other incarcerated men attack him on the upper tier of a housing unit on the evening of Monday, October 26.
Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said staff observed Justin Castro, 47, and Luis Mendoza, 33, attack Carlos Montenegro at 6:43 p.m. Montenegro was taken to the prison's treatment and triage area, where paramedics pronounced him dead at 7:24 p.m. — 41 minutes after the attack was first seen.
Source: MyNewsLA
What happened inside the housing unit
According to CDCR, staff responded immediately, first issuing verbal orders to 'get down,' which were ignored. Officers then fired five less-lethal 40mm direct-impact rounds to quell the attack. Staff alerted 911 and began life-saving measures on Montenegro while moving him to the treatment and triage area, the department said.
Two improvised weapons were found at the scene of the attack, CDCR said. No motive for the attack was given in the department's statement, and officials did not say in that statement whether any staff member was injured.
Who the three men are, according to CDCR
Montenegro, 39, was received from Los Angeles County on September 3, 2024. He was serving a six-year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon, a second-strike offence, CDCR said.
Castro, 47, was received from Los Angeles County on May 8, 2024. CDCR said he was sentenced as a third striker to life in prison with the possibility of parole for attempted second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree robbery, kidnapping and carjacking, with an enhancement for use of a firearm.
Mendoza, 33, was received from Orange County on March 15, 2017. CDCR said he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for attempted second-degree murder, second-degree robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and criminal gang activity, with enhancements for use of a firearm and for street-gang acts in the commission of a serious felony.
Castro and Mendoza have been placed in restricted housing while investigators work. CDCR describes the case as a homicide investigation; the department's statement does not announce criminal charges, and any charging decision rests with the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.
Who is investigating, and what happens next
Castro and Mendoza were placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the prison's Investigative Services Unit and the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, CDCR said. The Office of the Inspector General, which oversees the prison system, has also been notified — the standard step after a death in custody in California.
What happens next will be decided in stages: the prison investigation and the district attorney's review will determine whether criminal charges are filed over Montenegro's death, and the Inspector General notification opens the separate oversight track that follows deaths inside California prisons. CDCR has not announced a timeline for either review.
Background: the prison, and a second death there this month
California State Prison, Sacramento — known as SAC — is in Folsom, in Sacramento County. CDCR says it opened in 1986 and houses more than 2,200 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated people, offers academic classes and vocational programs, and employs approximately 1,500 people.
This is the second death at the same prison that CDCR has investigated as a homicide this month. On October 6, officials said a 47-year-old incarcerated man, Mario Ortega, died after an attack by another incarcerated person during an escort inside the facility, and an improvised weapon was recovered in that case as well. That earlier case is a separate incident; officials have not linked the two.
For Punjabi and other diaspora families in the Sacramento region — one of California's oldest and largest Punjabi communities, spread across Sacramento, Elk Grove, Yuba City and the wider Central Valley — SAC is a major local employer and the region's best-known state institution, which is why a homicide investigation inside its housing units draws attention well beyond the prison walls.
Awaaz Punjab will update this report if the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announces charges or if CDCR releases further findings from its investigation.