CORCORAN – Officials at California State Prison-Corcoran (CSP-COR) are investigating the death of inmate Adrian Rodriguez Jr., 44, as a homicide.
On Sept. 10 at 8:13 p.m., officers responded to the Security Housing Unit cell Rodriguez was sharing with Daniel Santos. Santos was seen battering Rodriguez and officers used pepper spray to stop his attack. Medical staff rendered aid to Rodriguez and performed CPR; however, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at 8:55 p.m.
The Kings County Coroner will determine Rodriguez’s cause of death.
Rodriguez was admitted from Riverside County on July 24, 2007, to serve three years for evading or attempting to evade a peace officer while driving recklessly. While incarcerated, he was sentenced in Kings County on Dec. 17, 2009, to serve nine years for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury, an in-prison offense. He was also sentenced in Del Norte County on Sept. 19, 2013, to serve two years for possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon by a prisoner, an in-prison offense.
Santos, 29, the suspect in this case, was admitted from Imperial County on Jan. 12, 2018, to serve seven years for discharging a firearm from an inhabited dwelling/vehicle/aircraft.
The Investigative Services Unit at CSP-COR is investigating this incident. The Office of the Inspector General was notified.
CSP-COR, opened in 1988, employs approximately 2,500 people and houses approximately 3,300 minimum-, medium-, maximum- and high-security inmates. The institution provides work, vocational, academic, educational, self-help, religious and other rehabilitative programs and has a fully licensed correctional treatment center.
Contact: CDCR Press Office, opec@cdcr.ca.gov
