California prison officials investigating homicide after inmate found wounded in cell
A homicide investigation was underway after an inmate was found Thursday with several injuries, including stab wounds, in his cell at a California prison in Amador County.
Robert Aranda, 23, was found unresponsive and wounded in his cell about 1:40 p.m. at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday in a news release.
Prison staff performed life-saving measures on Aranda and took him to the prison’s Treatment and Triage Area. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later. CDCR officials said the Amador County Coroner’s Office would determine Aranda’s cause of death.
Alexander Mateuz, 38, Aranda’s prison cellmate, was identified as the alleged attacker in Aranda’s death, according to CDCR. Mateuz has been moved to the prison’s administrative segregation unit while the homicide is investigated.
Aranda in November 2021 was convicted of two counts of second-degree attempted murder with the use of a gun in Los Angeles County and sentenced to 13 years in prison, CDCR officials said.
Mateuz is serving life in prison sentence with a chance of parole after an August 2008 Los Angeles County conviction of assault with a firearm as a third-striker, use of a firearm and an enhancement of a street gang act in the commission of a violent felony, according to CDCR.
Mule Creek State Prison, which opened in 1987, houses more than 3,800 minimum, medium and maximum-security incarcerated people.
