An inmate who is suspected of killing two people at the same Sacramento County jail is now being charged with a third murder at the facility, which is still dealing with safety issues after a riot this week that sent several people to the hospital.
Nathan Marcus, 33, was stabbed to death at California State Prison, Sacramento, in 2022. A jury in Sacramento County found Tyler Yates guilty of murder. He is also charged with killing 39-year-old Jonathan Rude last month during an attack on the exercise yard. The case is still open.
When prison guards did a security check on Friday, they found Yates’ cellmate dead from being stabbed. A news report from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says that officers helped the victim, Jake Kennedy, get medical help and called 911.
In a 7:04 a.m. report, a paramedic said Kennedy was dead after being taken to the prison’s triage and treatment room.
One homemade weapon was found at the jail, which is sometimes called New Folsom. This is the second murder the jail has heard about this year, including the attack on Rude.
CDCR said last month that Kennedy and Yates were planning to kill Rude.
Kennedy moved from San Bernardino County to New Folsom on February 6, 2020. He is 32 years old. He got six years in jail for hiding a dirk or dagger outside his body. According to the CDCR, he got an extra four years in jail on January 9, 2023, because he attacked another prisoner and hurt them very badly.
Wednesday there was a riot in jail with 40 prisoners. The authorities called it a “mass casualty incident.” Out of the six people who were hurt, five were taken to the UC Davis Medical Center or the Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
The CDCR says that no staff members were hurt in either the riot or the murder on Friday.
In 2017, Yates moved from San Diego County to New Folsom for the first time. For first-degree burglary and assault likely to cause great physical harm, he was given eight years in prison.
The murder on Friday is still being looked into.
