A Riverside County inmate sentenced to death was allegedly murdered in a state prison by another inmate, which led to a large mob attack on Friday morning, officials say.
It happened around 10:30 a.m. at Kern Valley State Prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
At that time, homicide investigators say inmate Mario Renteria, 36, from Riverside County, allegedly began attacking the death sentence inmate, identified as 46-year-old Julian Mendez.
Details on this initial altercation are limited; officials did not specify Renteria’s actions other than that he was “striking” Mendez, nor did they say whether Mendez fought back.
CDCR said staff ordered the men to “get down,” but that the inmates did not comply.
“Chemical agents initially stopped the attack, but more than 30 additional incarcerated people rushed Renteria and began striking him,” stated CDCR’s release. “Orders to stop were ignored and staff used multiple blast grenades to quell the violence.”
As the mob was cleared, officials found Mendez with what was only described as “multiple wounds,” and attempted life-saving measures. An improvised weapon was also found at the scene.
Mendez was then taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area, where a doctor pronounced him dead at 11:05 a.m.
Officials said Mendez was received from Riverside County on Dec. 2, 2004, after he received a death sentence in 2002 for the first-degree murder of two teenagers.
According to the “Death Sentences Today” site curated by a Drake University Law School professor, Mendez committed the crime on Feb. 4, 2000, when he was 22 years old.
The site says that, according to the defense in his trial, Mendez was a gang member when he beat a 15-year-old boy and shot him twice, including once in the head, before ordering another gang member to shoot a 14-year-old girl because she was a witness.
“The other gang member refused to shoot [the girl], so Mendez ultimately shot her,” stated the site’s summary. “In mitigation, the defense argued Mendez had spent most of his life in a gang, and his father spent half of his life in prison because of drug usage.”
Following Mendez’s death, CDCR said Renteria remains in restricted housing pending investigation into this case, and that “officials have limited population movement to facilitate the investigation being conducted.”
The release noted that Renteria was received from Riverside County on April 27, 2022, after he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder (a third strike offense) and arson.
