California prison officials are investigating the killing of a Livermore man serving time in Kern Valley State Prison in Delano (Kern County).
Guards found Jacob Kober, 35, in his cell around 7:20 p.m. Thursday, seriously injured and unresponsive, according to a release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Officials called 911 and began treating Kober, who was suffering from injuries consistent with “an incarcerated-manufactured weapon.” Staff took Kober to the prison’s clinic, where he was pronounced dead about a half-hour later.
Prison officials didn’t identify the attacker but said they also found Kober’s cellmate, 39-year-old Matthew Perez, suffering from similar injuries. Perez was taken to an outside medical facility for treatment, officials said.
The Kern Valley prison’s investigative services unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the killing, according to the department of corrections’ news release. The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Kern County coroner will determine the official cause of Kober’s death.
Kober arrived at the prison in 2015, prison officials said Saturday. He had been convicted of murdering a former friend, Kenneth Ogden, in 2012, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office previously said. The district attorney’s office told Bay City News that Kober and Ogden had a falling-out over a dispute about money and because Kober believed Ogden had tried to kiss his girlfriend.
The two met at the Springtown Golf Course in Livermore the night of the murder to talk things over, according to the Bay City News story, but then Kober shot Ogden twice.
Kober fled to Oakland and then to Oregon, where he was arrested before being extradited to California.
Perez was serving an 18-year prison sentence handed down on a 2012 assault conviction out of Monterey County.
While he was serving time, Perez was convicted in two additional cases, authorities said: he received an eight-year sentence in 2014 for assaulting another prisoner and an additional two years in 2016 for drug possession.
Court records show prison guards observed Perez’s girlfriend passing him drugs when they kissed during a visit.
Guards searched her afterward and found a bag of methamphetamine, records show.
Later, guards retrieved methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and $300 from Perez. He appealed the two-year sentence he received from that incident, arguing he was a victim of unconstitutional search and seizure. An appellate court ruled against Perez.
At his last parole hearing, Perez was deemed unsuitable for consideration for early release for three years, according to state records.Padel vs Pickleball