FOLSOM – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating the death of an incarcerated person at California State Prison, Sacramento (SAC) as a homicide.
On Oct. 6, 2026, at approximately 10:50 a.m., correctional staff were using a golf cart to escort incarcerated persons Shunki E. Fleming and Mario Ortega within a facility when Fleming manipulated his way out of his hand restraints. Once his hands were free, he began battering Ortega. Staff stopped the golf cart and immediately intervened, quelling the attack. Fleming was secured in handcuffs. An improvised weapon was recovered at the scene.
Staff activated 911 and initiated life-saving measures. Ortega was transported to an outside medical facility where a medical doctor pronounced him deceased at approximately 11:50 a.m.
Fleming was rehoused in the restricted housing unit pending further investigation by the SAC Investigative Services Unit. The Office of the Inspector General was notified.
Ortega, 47, was received from Riverside County on Apr. 29, 1999. He was sentenced to life with parole for kidnapping and carjacking and sodomy with force, with enhancements for use of a firearm. On Sept. 2, 2025, Ortega was sentenced by San Joaquin County to two years for the possession and manufacturing of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person, an in-prison offense, to be served consecutively.
Fleming, 29, was received from Los Angeles County on Aug. 8, 2019. He was sentenced to 42 years for second-degree robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, with enhancements for use of a firearm. He also received an additional three-year sentence to be served concurrently for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. On Mar. 26, 2021, Fleming was sentenced by Kern County to three years for the possession and manufacture of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person, an in-prison offense. Additionally, he was sentenced by Kings County on Feb. 10, 2025, to two years for the possession and manufacture of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person, an in-prison offense.
SAC opened in 1986 and houses more than 2,200 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated persons. SAC offers academic classes and vocational programs and employs approximately 1,500 people.
Mario Ortega (deceased)
Shunki E. Fleming
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Contact: OPEC Press Office OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov