Six inmates have been placed in restricted cells at Wasco State Prison (WSP) near Bakersfield for allegedly participating in the beating that killed David Dominguez.
At the same time, prison officials have opened a homicide investigation following the inmate’s death on Saturday.
Prison staff were able to communicate with Dominguez, 29, after seeing other inmates helping him around a room, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said in a news release.
At approximately 2:30 p.m., prison authorities observed Dominguez being physically supported by other inmates.
The inmate told staff he had suffered a seizure and fallen.
“An emergency medical alert was immediately issued and the health personnel who responded determined that [Domínguez] required a higher level of care,” the prison authorities’ report said.
The inmate was taken to the triage area where treatment priority was determined and an ambulance was called while life-saving measures were taken. However, despite the efforts, Dominguez was declared dead by a paramedic at 4:07 p.m.
Dominguez arrived from San Diego to Wasco State Prison in Kern County last fall.
Death is being investigated as a homicide
A subsequent review of the prison’s audio and video surveillance system showed prisoners Jose Landeros and Michael S. Padilla entering Dominguez’s cell and initiating a physical altercation.
Landeros and Padilla were placed in restricted cells pending an investigation by the Wasco State Prison (WSP) Investigative Services Unit and Kern County District Attorney Cynthia J. Zimmer.
Also placed in restricted cells were inmates Robert Rubalcava, Leonel A. Torres, Zakary W. White and Mario Aguillón as part of the investigation.
The Kern County Inspector General’s Office and the Kern County Coroner have been notified of Dominguez’s death and will determine the official cause of death.
Dominguez was 29 years old and had been sent to Wasco State Prison on October 4, 2023. He was sentenced in San Diego to three years in prison for extortion by use of force, threat and assault. All of the crimes were aggravated by gang involvement.
Those accused of the crime
Jose Landeros, 27, was transferred from Riverside County to the Wasco Jail on March 6, 2020.
The suspect had been sentenced at age 16 for second-degree robbery aggravated by the use of a firearm. He was also sentenced by Kern County on January 5, 2022, to three years and four months for second-degree robbery, assault with a firearm and false imprisonment with violence.
Michael S. Padilla, 37, was last incarcerated on May 25, 2023, in San Bernardino County. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, a second-time offense, with enhancements for fleeing the scene and a prior felony conviction.
Robert Rubalcava40, was last received from San Bernardino County on Sept. 29, 2023. He had been sentenced to 14 years for attempted second-degree murder, a crime classified in his case as a second felony, aggravated by the use of a firearm and street gang activity.
Leonel A. Torres40, arrived at Wasco Prison from Santa Barbara County on Nov. 8, 2019.
Torres faces a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder.
Zakary W. White27, has been behind bars in Wasco since Feb. 1, 2024. He was convicted in Riverside County of committing a second felony vehicle theft. He faces a six-year sentence.
Mario Aguillón He is the sixth suspect in the death of David Dominguez. He is 37 years old and was received from Los Angeles County in Wasco on February 2, 2005. He is sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.
Aguillón was subsequently convicted on November 15, 2013, in Sacramento County, with the possibility of parole, of felony assault committed while in prison.
Wasco State Prison (WSP), located in Kern County, opened in 1991 and houses approximately 3,300 inmates and employs approximately 1,470 people.
A warm-up
Luis Vargas, 55, who was unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in various jails and prisons in California for crimes he said he never committed, analyzed that David Dominguez “was wanted to be ‘checked’ by the gang members in the prison” [examinarlo] and a beating.”
“If he didn’t want to reveal who hit him, it was because if he did, he would get into more trouble. That death shouldn’t have passed more than one check, but I think they beat him so much that they caused him many internal injuries,” he speculated.
Vargas, who is now a Christian preacher, described the two inmates who entered Dominguez’s cell as “probably doing so when they are being let out to the yard, to recess, and the cells are kept open; at those times the officers are not checking who is leaving and who is entering.”
Vargas was released in May 2016 after nearly two decades in the shadows for a crime he did not commit, he said.
Witness to 27 murders
“I witnessed the killing of approximately 27 prisoners,” Vargas revealed. “That friend[David Dominguez]perhaps owed money for drugs and could not pay, or perhaps he committed some crime, like any type of violation that the Sureños ‘board’ [pandilleros] They do not accept.”
According to Public Intelligence, the Mexican Mafia (La Eme) controls criminal activities inside and outside of California prisons, and the Varrio Wasco Rifas gang was the only recognized criminal organization at Wasco State Prison; they largely dominate the western part of that city of 27,731 residents.
Vargas also commented that in all California prisons, particularly the gangs of Latino inmates that make up “La Mesa” (leaders) are made up of “lieutenants,” “captains,” “generals,” and “sergeants,” who have the highest ranks of power.
“At the end there are the boys who beat the prisoner [José Landeros y Michael S. Padilla]. These are called “soldiers” or “peons”; they are the ones who clean the yard, and when those in charge want to order someone to be beaten or get rid of them, they tell them “we have to clean the house”… They are the ones who do the dirty work of the gang,” said Vargas.
As of March 2024, CalMatters reported that more than 2,700 inmates have died in California prisons since 2005.