Inmate killed at state prison in Northern California; two in yard suspected in fatal attack

A California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate serving multiple life terms is dead after two men attacked him in a yard at the facility.

Felipe Rodriguez, 36, was jumped by two inmates in the maximum security yard at the facility known as New Folsom about 2:36 p.m. Tuesday, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said in a news release. The men used handmade weapons in the fatal attack, prison officials said.

Correctional officers recovered two weapons after the incident and identified the men they suspect were responsible for the killing: Selso E. Orozco Jr., 41, of Sonoma County; and Mike A. Calderon, 36, of Los Angeles County.

Orozco was sent to California State Prison, Sacramento, in 2019 to serve 23 years for robbery, child endangerment and weapons possession by a felon. Calderon is serving a life sentence without parole for murder. He was admitted to the maximum security Folsom-area facility in 2016.

Guards called an ambulance to the prison, but Rodriguez later died of his wounds about an hour after the attack at 3:23 p.m., officials said in the statement. Rodriguez’s family has been notified. The Office of Inspector General was also updated on the fatal incident, CDCR officials said.

Rodriguez had originally been sentenced in 2015 to a 9-year term for carjacking in San Bernardino County; but he was sentenced in custody in 2018 to a life term for attempted first-degree murder in Los Angeles County, according to state corrections officials. In 2019, a Los Angeles judge sentenced Rodriguez to multiple life terms for a deadly kidnapping for ransom, along with extortion and causing great bodily injury.