CRESCENT CITY – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating the April 21, 2024, death of an incarcerated person at Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) as a homicide.
During dayroom activities at approximately 6:55 p.m., officers responded when incarcerated individuals Michael R. Challoner and Joseph A. Quintero engaged in a physical altercation.
Medical staff were immediately called for assistance and determined Challoner had multiple puncture wounds. Life-saving measures were taken, and Challoner was transported by ambulance to an outside medical facility where he was pronounced dead at approximately 7:47 p.m.
A search of the section led to incarcerated individual Michael Jones, a suspect who was near a cell occupied by Oscar Monsibais and Omar Arzate. An inmate-manufactured weapon was discovered during a search of the cell and its occupants.
Quintero, Jones, Monsibais and Arzate have been placed in restricted housing, and population movement has been limited. An investigation continues by PBSP’s Investigative Services Unit and the Del Norte County District Attorney’s Office. The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Del Norte County Coroner will determine Challoner’s official cause of death.
Challoner, 36, was received from Ventura County on July 9, 2009, sentenced to 21 years for voluntary manslaughter, with an enhancement for street gang act in commission of violent felony. While incarcerated, he was sentenced to two years on June 21, 2016, for battery on a non-incarcerated person. He was also sentenced to two years, eight months on March 28, 2019, for assault by an incarcerated person with a deadly weapon or force likely to cause great bodily injury, a second-strike offense.
Quintero, 36, was most recently received from Los Angeles County on Dec. 2, 2021, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder as a second striker. While incarcerated, he was sentenced to an additional two-year sentence on Sept. 7, 2023, for possession of a controlled substance in prison.
Jones, 49, was received from Los Angeles County on June 13, 1995, sentenced to 32 years for second-degree robbery inflicting great bodily injury, with an enhancement for use of a firearm; second-degree robbery with an enhancement for use of a firearm; assault with a firearm with enhancements for use of a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury; first-degree robbery with an enhancement for use of a firearm; and attempted second-degree robbery with an enhancement for use of a firearm. While incarcerated, he was sentenced on Sept. 11, 2003, to 11 years for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, a second-strike in-prison offense. While incarcerated, he was also sentenced on August 12, 2010, to three years for possession of controlled substance, an in-prison offense, and on Jan. 20, 2015, to two years for possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person as a second striker.
Monsibais, 29, was received from Los Angeles County on Feb. 22, 2012, sentenced to five years for assault with deadly weapon inflicting great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon. He was released to parole supervision on Aug. 8, 2016. He was returned from parole on March 20, 2017, sentenced by Los Angeles County to four years for second-degree robbery as a second striker. He was released to parole supervision on March 29, 2020. He was returned from parole on March 14, 2023, sentenced by Los Angeles County to 15 years, four months for attempted murder, possession/ownership of a firearm, and possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, all second-strike offenses.
Arzate, 29, was received from Los Angeles County on April 6, 2021, sentenced to 29 years, eight months for assault with a machine gun, with an enhancement for use of an assault weapon; kidnapping, with an enhancement for use of an assault weapon; and criminal threat to cause great bodily injury/death, with an enhancement for use of an assault weapon. He was also sentenced by Los Angeles County to three years for resisting/deterring an officer with threat/violence to be served concurrently with the above sentence.
PBSP houses minimum, medium, high, and maximum-security male incarcerated persons. The institution opened in 1989 and is located on 275 acres on the North Coast of California, 13 miles from the Oregon/California Border, housing approximately 1,820 incarcerated people and employs 1500 staff. PBSP offers academic classes, vocational programs, rehabilitative programs/groups, medical services, mental health services, religious services, work assignments, self-help groups and many other programs.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2024
Contact: OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov
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