https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/child-molester-beaten-to-death-in-california-prison/ar-AAzXuhp
A convicted child sex offender has been killed by another inmate less than one week after arriving at a jail in California.
Officials are treating the death of 66-year-old Agustin Duran as a possible homicide following an incident at Wasco State Prison on July 7.
Correctional officers in one of the prison’s dayrooms responded when 19-year-old Andres Ayon began repeatedly punching Duran in the face and torso.
Ayon continued to attack Duran even after the alarm had been sounded and all the other inmates got on the ground. Ayon eventually got down on the ground after officers deployed a pepper spray grenade, the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitations (CDRC) said.
Duran was airlifted out of the jail to hospital. He later died from his injuries at 4:48 p.m. on July 8.
Ayon was detained and escorted to a holding cell after attacking Duran. He was treated for minor injuries at the prison and later placed in the institution’s Administrative Segregation Unit while the incident is investigated.
Officials said Duran arrived at the prison from Los Angeles County on July 2. He was serving a sentence of 55 years to life with the possibility of parole after being convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old.
Ayon arrived at the facility on June 22 from Kern County to serve six years for second-degree robbery and use of a deadly weapon.
Investigators from the Kern County District Attorney’s Office are assisting in the investigation and the Office of the Inspector General has been notified.
“The primary mission of Wasco State Prison is to provide short-term housing necessary to process, classify and evaluate new inmates physically and mentally to determine their security level, program requirements, and appropriate institutional placement,” CDRC added in a statement.
Wasco State Prison was opened in 1991 and houses around 4,900 inmates.
In February 2017, officials launched a homicide investigation after inmate Jason Morris was found strangled in his cell.
He was serving two concurrent three-year sentences after also being convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 years old.
