CDCR: Yuba County man involved in death at prison
Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said Monday that an investigation is underway in the May 20 death of an inmate at High Desert State Prison in Lassen County that allegedly involves a former Yuba County resident.
According to the CDCR, at about 6:40 p.m. on
May 20, staff at the prison “observed” inmates
Pedro Ayon and Brandon Martinez assaulting
Jeffrey Concepcion in the institution’s C yard. “Staff quickly responded and quelled the incident,” officials said. “Concepcion was unresponsive and staff quickly initiated life-saving measures. They summoned emergency services and transported Concepcion to the institution’s triage and treatment area. He was pronounced deceased by the Lassen County Coroner at 7:45 p.m. No staff or other incarcerated persons reported any injuries.”
Martinez, who was placed into Restricted Housing as a result of the alleged incident, pleaded no contest in 2016 to a felony robbery charge in Yuba County “for the benefit of the Norteño street gang,” according to Appeal archives. That crime, a prosecutor previously said, was committed the day after Martinez was sentenced to probation for assault with a deadly weapon.
Just 18 years old at the time, Martinez was ultimately sentenced to 18 years and 8 months in prison, according to the plea form he signed.
Before the robbery, Martinez was 17 when he cut a boy several times with a knife in March 2015, court documents showed. He told a probation officer he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and that he should have just walked away, the Appeal previously reported.
As a result of that incident, Martinez was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for the benefit of a criminal street gang and Yuba County Judge Julia Scrogin told him he was receiving an opportunity when she sentenced him to five years probation.
He was released from custody and was told that he could face a 12-year sentence if he broke any laws or associated with known gang affiliates.
The day after that sentencing, and two hours after he met with his probation officer, Martinez and two other boys robbed and assaulted three people, at three separate times. One of the robberies occurred as they were fleeing from deputies, Deputy District Attorney Mechele Cook previously said.
As a result of the May 20 death of Concepcion at High Desert State Prison, officials have “limited movement on the housing unit where the attack occurred to facilitate the investigation being conducted” by the prison’s Investigative Services Unit, the Lassen County District Attorney’s Office, and the Lassen County Coroner. The Office of the Inspector General also was notified and the Lassen County Coroner will determine Concepcion’s official cause of death, officials said.
Previously, Concepcion, 43, was sentenced on July 26, 1999, from Monterey County to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, second-degree robbery, and attempted seconddegree murder, officials said.
Ayon, 30, was previously sentenced on June 20, 2012, from Tulare County to serve a 27-year and two-month sentence for two counts of seconddegree murder, one count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, one count of second-degree robbery, and one count of attempted carjacking, officials said.