SOLEDAD — California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the death of an incarcerated person at Salinas Valley State Prison as a homicide.
Correctional staff observed incarcerated people Dillon King and Justin Learmont approach Michael Loftin in a recreation yard at about 12:50 p.m. Sept. 21 and attack him with an improvised weapon, according to CDCR.
Staff intervened and stopped the attack. King and Learmont were taken into custody, and an improvised weapon was recovered at the scene.
Staff called 911 and began lifesaving measures. A medical doctor at the prison pronounced Loftin dead at 1:19 p.m.
King and Learmont were placed in the prison’s restricted housing unit while the prison’s Investigative Services Unit and Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigate. The Office of the Inspector General also was notified.
Loftin, 43, was received at the prison from Del Norte County on Nov. 24, 2020. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, with an enhancement for intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury or death.
King, 28, was received from Riverside County on June 21, 2021. He was serving sentences for second-degree robbery, attempted first-degree burglary and receiving stolen property. He also was sentenced in Riverside County in March 2024 to two years for assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.
Learmont, 44, was received from San Bernardino County on March 26, 2010. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for attempted second-degree murder, with an enhancement for intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury or death, and assault with a firearm.
In 2016, Monterey County sentenced Learmont to 17 years for assault by an incarcerated person with a deadly weapon or force likely to cause great bodily injury.
