The family of a Merced inmate fatally stabbed nearly 180 times at a state prison is suing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for “deliberate indifference” after horrifying video of the killing went viral.
Joseph Mendoza, 36, was killed April 8 at the Salinas Valley lockup in Soledad, Ca. prison by two fellow inmates who were captured on video driving a shank into Mendoza’s back again and again.
The grisly video was subsequently leaked to social media, where it garnered thousands of views, according to legal papers filed by the team of attorneys representing Mendoza.
The suit, filed in December in the Northern District of California, claims prison officers acted with “deliberate indifference” as they “stood by and observed as [Mendoza] was butchered and left to die.”
According to a news release on Mendoza’s killing issued by the Department of Corrections, inmates Edgar Frayre and Nicolas Young attacked Mendoza with improvised weapons just around dinner time.
They are seen pouncing on Mendoza together in a video of the incident provided by the dead man’s attorneys.
Prison staff immediately responded to the attack by Frayre and Young, making “several verbal commands to stop, which were ignored,” according to the Department of Corrections news release.
“Staff then deployed multiple less-than-lethal use-of-force options, which ultimately quelled the incident,” the release continues. “Frayre and Young were secured in handcuffs.”
But the attorneys representing Mendoza’s family said in their suit that prison staff weren’t doing their job and “failed to provide timely or adequate medical care, including basic life-saving measures,” to help Mendoza.
Corrections officials said Mendoza was serving 22 years at Salinas Valley State Prison for robbery and attempted murder at the time of his death. While incarcerated, he received an additional four years for possession and manufacture of a deadly weapon by a prisoner and battery on a non-prisoner.
Frayre, 30, was serving 50 years for voluntary manslaughter and participation in a criminal street gang act, corrections officials said. Young, 32, was serving 25 years for attempted murder. While incarcerated, Young received an additional 11 years for in-prison attempted murder, the officials said.
After Mendoza’s killing, Frayre and Young were placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the prison Investigative Services Unit and the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for possible felony prosecution, corrections officials said.
Lawyers for Frayre and Young couldn’t immediately be reached. Corrections officials couldn’t immediately provide an update on the investigation into Mendoza’s alleged killing.
In a news conference Wednesday, attorneys representing Mendoza’s family blamed prison staff for leaking the video of Mendoza’s killing and called for consequences to officers who they say failed to act.
“All of the officers involved should be summarily fired,” one of Mendoza’s lawyers, Bryan Harrison, told reporters.
In a Jan. 29 response to the suit brought by Mendoza’s family, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said Mendoza “was killed as a result of being repeatedly stabbed with makeshift knives” by Frayre and Young, but denied wrongdoing on the part of the prison and its staff.
Both Bonta and Mendoza’s attorneys seek a jury trial for the case.