Investigators with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are investigating the death of a 51-year-old mate as a homicide, officials announced Monday.
Incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Longeno Jones, who was mostly recently transferred to the facility from Los Angeles County in 2007, was found unresponsive in his cell on May 21 at around 5:15 p.m., which CDCR officials said in a news release was medication distribution time.
Prison staff, according to the release, immediately began life-saving measures on Jones and rushed him to the facility’s triage and treatment area where he was pronounced dead by paramedics at 5:45 p.m.
Jones’ cellmate, 54-year-old Jesse A. Ferdin, was taken from the cell and placed in restrictive housing pending the outcome of the investigation.
Authorities did not provide any information about the 51-year-old’s likely cause of death, whether he was suffering any visible injuries or if there was evidence that his cellmate was involved in his death.
Jones had been sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree burglary as a third striker with enhancements for prior nonviolent prison offenses, as well as prior felony convictions of serious offense, officials said.
His cellmate, Ferdin, was transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Jan. 2019 from Alameda County. He’s currently serving a 12-year sentence for rape with force, violence and fear of great bodily injury as a second striker.
The prison’s Investigative Services Unit and the Amador County District Attorney’s Office have assumed the investigation into Jones’ death.
The Amador County Coroner will determine the 51-year-old’s cause of death.
Mule Creek State Prison opened in 1987 and houses more than 3,800 minimum, medium and maximum-security inmates.
