Inmate dies after being attacked by other prisoners at California max-security lockup, officials say

TEHACHAPI, Calif. (AP) — An inmate at a California maximum-security prison died Wednesday after being stabbed several times by two other prisoners, authorities said.

David Moreno, 38, was attacked shortly before 9 a.m. at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi, according to a statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Guards used chemical agents to quickly break up the attack, but Moreno died on the way to a hospital less than an hour later, authorities said.

Three inmate-made weapons were seized, and two prisoners, Carlos Cervantes and Armando Taylor, have been moved to restricted housing while Moreno’s death is under investigation.

Moreno was sent to the maximum-security prison in 2004 to serve a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He was convicted in Los Angeles County of two counts of attempted murder using a gun. In 2015, he was given an additional three years for battery on a non-prisoner while behind bars, authorities said.

Cervantes, 39, arrived at the prison from Kern County in 2018. He was serving a sentence of life without chance of parole on two counts of first-degree murder using a gun and received additional time in 2020 for making a deadly weapon and assaulting another inmate while imprisoned, authorities said.

Taylor, 41, was convicted of murder and arrived at the prison from Imperial County in 2017 to serve a sentence of life with the possibility of parole. In 2020 and 2022, he received additional prison time for in-prison assaults, authorities said.