Authorities are investigating a California prisoner whose roommate died and a convicted child harasser found the body Friday at Mule Creek State Jail.
Officials at the Amador County Jail found Robert E. Cole’s responsibility in his cell, according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They tried to resurrect him, but he was declared dead a few minutes later.
Cole, 48, was sent from Placer County to Mzi Creek. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple violent sexual offences, including having sex with children under the age of 10, verbally mating with children under the age of 14, and verbally mating with unconscious victims, according to CDCR officials.
Cole’s roommate Justin P. Welsh was placed in restricted housing, while jail authorities and the Amador County District Attorney’s Office investigated the alleged homicide. The Amador County Coroner’s Office will determine the official cause of death for Cole.
Sex offenders, especially those convicted of crimes against children, are a common target of prison violence. According to an AP 2015 analysis, male sex offenders make up about 15% of California’s prison population, but about 30% of homicide victims in prisons.
Welsh, 36, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for gun attacks and physical injuries, both of which were sentenced to Mule Creek. According to CDCR officials, he faces an increased amount of verdicts because of domestic violence involved and previously convicted of serious felonies.
The Mule Creek State Prison opened in 1987 and has more than 3,800 prisoners. It was the same prison, according to the Amador County Sheriff’s Office, and David Brinson, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in four districts – killing his wife during a November visit.
Cole’s death, if determined to be a homicide, would be the latest in a series of violent deaths in California prisons.
A jailed man died Sunday after being attacked in the Monterey County Jail, according to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say 39-year-old prisoner Joshua L. Peppers was allegedly attacked by a prisoner in Lancaster and suffered fatal injuries last month. Also in March, 32-year-old prisoner Jake Kennedy died from multiple stabbings at the Sacramento prison.
