According to the Northern Kern State Prison (NKSP) officials, the death of an inmate, Rosendo Sosa, is being investigated as a homicide.

On the morning of Sunday, March 12, upon inmates returning from the recreational yard, an officer observed inmate David Dooley, 25, punch inmate Sosa, 59, in the face. Sosa, without fighting back, fell to the ground.

Medical staff transported Sosa to an outside hospital for treatment of a head injury.

Sosa died from his injury and was pronounced dead at 3:15 pm on Tuesday.

Sosa was taken into custody from Fresno County in February for elder abuse and causing injury to an elder resulting in death. Dooley was taken into custody from Merced County in January and was serving a three-year sentence for corporal injury on a spouse. 

Dooley has been placed in NKSP’s Administrative Segregation Unit during the investigation.