COALINGA – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating the alleged homicide of an incarcerated person at Pleasant Valley State Prison on Jan. 17, 2026.
At 2:07 p.m. staff responded to an incident inside the Dorm 1 Dayroom of the Minimum Support Facility involving incarcerated persons Brion E. Spidle, Jorge Ortega and Victor Wence. Spidle had been knocked to the ground and was unconscious.
Staff immediately requested emergency medical assistance and initiated life-saving measures, however Spidle succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at 2:33 p.m.
No weapon was recovered at the scene. No staff or additional incarcerated people were injured.
Ortega and Wence were identified as the suspected assailants and were secured without incident. Both have been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the institution’s Investigative Services Unit and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office for possible felony prosecution.
The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Fresno County coroner will determine Spidle’s official cause of death.
Spidle, 41, was received from Shasta County on June 2, 2025. He was sentenced to four years for corporal injury on specific persons resulting in a traumatic condition.
Ortega, 51, was received from Stanislaus County on Feb. 20, 2025. He was sentenced to six years for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury as a second striker and vehicle theft as a second striker.
Wence, 43, was received from Los Angeles County on Feb. 16, 2023. He was sentenced to 10 years for second degree robbery as a second striker.
PVSP houses minimum and maximum-security incarcerated males. The prison opened in Fresno County in 1994, houses 3,074 incarcerated people and employs approximately 1500 staff.
###