By Robert J Hansen
Sacramento, CA – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating two inmate deaths, one at High Desert State Prison (HDSP) on July 22 and one at California State Prison, Sacramento (CSP-SAC) on July 23 according to a press statement from CDCR.
Wayne Caskey was attacked by Daryl Cull and Nicholas Mangelli with manufactured weapons in one of the maximum-security yards at Folsom Prison.
Responding staff used less than lethal 40mm direct impact rounds to quell the attack. Caskey was transported to the institution’s triage and treatment area and they summoned an ambulance; however, Caskey was declared deceased shortly after, according to the CDCR.
Sioux Caskey, Caskey’s wife, said she received a call from a family member about an hour after the coroner called her, telling her that her husband had been killed.
Ms. Caskey said her husband was being threatened and was expecting to be attacked.
“He told a family member who then told me that he was being threatened,” Ms. Caskey said. “I don’t know how they (prison guards) keep letting this happen.”
This is the second time Nicholas Mangelli has killed an inmate at Folsom. In 2018, Mangelli with another inmate stabbed and killed a 63-
year-old inmate.
Caskey, Mangelli and Cull all were serving life-with-parole sentences.
Officials have limited movement in the yard to facilitate the investigation being conducted by the prison’s Investigative Services Unit, the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office and the Sacramento County Coroner. The Office of the Inspector General was notified and the Sacramento County Coroner will determine Caskey’s official cause of death.
Joseph Gama and Alvaro Saldana attacked Albert Martinez in a maximum-security housing unit at High Desert Prison on Friday, July 22, according to CDCR.
Martinez was taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area for treatment of injuries he sustained from the attack, but he was later pronounced deceased.
Gama, 24, was sentenced on June 3, 2016, to serve a 15-year sentence for assault with a firearm inflicting great bodily injury with an enhancement for a street gang act.
Saldana, 37, was sentenced on May 31, 2011, from Stanislaus County to serve a life with parole sentence for first-degree murder as a second-striker with intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury/death.
Martinez, 52, was sentenced on Dec. 13, 1994, from Sacramento County to serve an 18-year, eight-month sentence for four counts of second-degree robbery with use of a firearm, one count of vehicle theft, and assault with a firearm with use of a firearm. While incarcerated, Martinez was sentenced in Kings County to serve a life with parole sentence for battery on a non-prisoner, a third strike offense.
Seven CDCR inmate killings since April, five at Folsom Prison this year
These alleged killings come just as a former Folsom Prison guard who is charged in connection with the 2016 death of a handcuffed inmate is expected to plead guilty according to the Sacramento Bee.
After reviewing press statements from CDCR, these July deaths now make seven inmate killings since April 30 inside California prisons. One at Salinas Valley State Prison, another at Delano Prison, one at High Desert Prison, two at Kern Valley State Prison and two at Folsom State Prison.
CDCR press statements also show that five inmates have been killed by other inmates this year. Deandre Lewis was killed in January, another in March, April, May and now Caskey in July.
Ms. Caskey said that Mangelli, who had already killed another inmate, was not supposed to be on the yard with her husband and she thinks the fact that Mangelli was able to have access to Caskey shows how prison guards are involved with inmates killing each other.
“They let those two on the yard and they’re not even supposed to be near each other,” Ms. Caskey said. “They obviously planned it. For those two men to be together with Wayne in the yard, it’s not a coincidence.”
Ms. Caskey thinks there are more prison guards involved at Folsom Prison and throughout CDCR involved with inmates killing each other.
“They watched it instead of acting to stop it,” Ms. Caskey said. “There are too many inmates that are being killed by other inmates. They’re being paid to protect people that have committed crimes and you’re worse than those people who are committing those crimes. “They’re letting inmates kill each other.”
