TEHACHAPI, Calif.—An inmate at a California maximum-security prison died Wednesday after being stabbed several times by two other prisoners, authorities said.
David Moreno, 38, was attacked shortly before 9 a.m. at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, according to a statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Guards used chemical agents to quickly break up the attack, but Mr. Moreno died on the way to a hospital less than an hour later, authorities said.
Three inmate-made weapons were seized, and two prisoners, Carlos Cervantes and Armando Taylor, have been moved to restricted housing while Mr. Moreno’s death is under investigation.
Mr. Moreno was sent to the maximum-security prison in 2004 to serve a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He was convicted in Los Angeles County of two counts of attempted murder using a gun. In 2015, he was given an additional three years for battery on a non-prisoner while behind bars, authorities said.
Mr. Cervantes, 39, arrived at the prison from Kern County in 2018. He was serving a sentence of life without chance of parole on two counts of first-degree murder using a gun and received additional time in 2020 for making a deadly weapon and assaulting another inmate while imprisoned, authorities said.
Mr. Taylor, 41, was convicted of murder and arrived at the prison from Imperial County in 2017 to serve a sentence of life with the possibility of parole. In 2020 and 2022, he received additional prison time for in-prison assaults, authorities said.