News Releases

Homicide of Salinas Valley State Prison Inmate Under Investigation

SOLEDAD – Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP) investigators are investigating an incident that left one inmate dead.

The incident occurred just after 11 a.m. this morning on one of the prison’s maximum-security yards when two inmates attacked a third inmate with prisoner-made weapons. The assailants disregarded orders from correctional officers to stop their attack. Officers quickly intervened and used chemical agents and one warning shot from the Mini-14 rifle to quell the attack.

Inmate Isaiah Williams, 38, succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at a community hospital at 12:18 p.m. Williams was committed from Fresno County on December 19, 1996, with a life sentence for first-degree murder.

SVSP investigators identified inmates Andrew Berry, 51, and Rex Dickey, 53, as the suspects in the attack.

Berry has been serving a life-without-parole sentence from Los Angeles County since May 5, 1997, for first-degree murder.

Dickey was initially received from Los Angeles County on December 10, 1982, with a two-year sentence for second-degree burglary. He was convicted of numerous burglary convictions in Los Angeles County in 1986, 1989, 1991 and 2000. He started serving a life-with-parole sentence from Kings County for second-degree murder on Sept. 30, 2003, an in-prison offense.

SVSP administrators have limited inmate movement on the facility where the incident occurred to facilitate the investigation.

SVSP opened May 1996 on approximately 300 acres in Monterey County. The institution provides long-term housing for approximately 3,700 minimum- and maximum-custody male inmates and employs 1,600 people.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 7, 2016

CONTACT: LT. EDUARDO MAZARIEGOS,
(831) 678-5554
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