STOCKTON – Officials at California Health Care Facility (CHCF) are investigating the May 31 death of 40-year-old inmate Aaron Coderre as a homicide.
On Sunday at approximately 4:30 p.m., prison staff found Coderre unresponsive in the showers. Staff immediately began life-saving measures but Coderre succumbed to an injury consistent with being attacked by a weapon and was pronounced deceased at 4:33 p.m. by a CHCF physician.
CHCF determined inmate Joshua Rudiger, 42, was in the showers at the same time and placed him in segregated housing pending an investigation.
The San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office is assisting CHCF’s Investigative Services Unit on the investigation. The Office of the Inspector General has been notified.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation received Coderre from Butte County on July 31, 2002. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for first-degree attempted murder with an enhancement of personal use of a dangerous weapon or deadly weapon.
Rudiger was received from San Francisco County on Feb. 24, 2002. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.
CHCF provides medical and mental health care to inmates who have the most severe and long-term needs. Opened in 2013, CHCF also provides inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment, has a diagnostic center, a dental clinic, a dialysis unit and provides services to inmate-patients needing or recovering from surgery. The facility also has a palliative care unit and recently opened a memory care unit for inmate-patients with dementia. The Stockton facility houses nearly 2,700 inmates and employs approximately 4,000 people.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lt. Obanuru Ratliff
(209) 467-2512
