Two inmates labeled as “suspected assailants” are under investigation following a fatal attack at a Central California prison, according to officials.
The California Department of Corrections said late Saturday that it launched an investigation into the alleged homicide of an incarcerated person at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, located in Fresno County.
CDCR officials said staff responded at about 2:07 p.m. Saturday to an incident inside the Dorm 1 Dayroom of the prison’s Minimum Support Facility, where they found inmate Brion E. Spidle unconscious on the ground.
Spidle, 41, had been received from Shasta County on June 2, 2025, after being sentenced to four years for corporal injury on specific persons resulting in a traumatic condition.
Emergency assistance was immediately requested and lifesaving efforts were initiated, but Spidle later succumbed to his injuries. He was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes after the incident was reported, corrections officials said.
No weapon was recovered at the scene, and Spidle’s cause of death has not yet been determined by the Fresno County coroner.
Prison staff identified Jorge Ortega and Victor Wence as the suspected assailants. Both inmates were secured without incident and placed in restricted housing, according to the CDCR release.
Ortega, 51, was received from Stanislaus County on Feb. 20, 2025. He was serving a six-year sentence for assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury as a second striker and vehicle theft as a second striker.
Wence, 43, was received from Los Angeles County on Feb. 16, 2023, after being sentenced to 10 years in state prison for second-degree robbery as a second striker.
The prison’s Investigative Services Unit and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office are handling the investigation for possible felony prosecution.
Opened in 1994, Pleasant Valley State Prison houses 3,074 minimum- and maximum-security male inmates.