CALIPATRIA – Officials at Calipatria State Prison (CAL) are investigating the death of an inmate as a homicide.
At 6:10 a.m. Thursday, May 19, officers observed an inmate with bruising and swelling to his face and a laceration to his eye. His cellmate, Wallace Thomson, 51, had a swollen hand. Both inmates were removed from the cell without incident and examined at CAL’s medical clinic. One inmate was transported to an outside hospital for treatment of serious injuries, including bruising, swelling, lacerations, collapsed lungs and a broken nose. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at midnight Saturday, May 21. His name is being withheld pending notification of his next-of-kin.
Thomson was received by CDCR on June 6, 2002, from Marin County to serve 122 years to life for rape. Thomson has been re-housed in administrative segregation pending the outcome of the investigation.
CAL opened in 1992 in Imperial County and houses 3,700 inmates. For more information, visit www.cdcr.ca.gov.