A death row inmate from Castaic died last week after an attack by fellow inmates.

Convicted inmate Alberto Martinez, 46, formerly of Castaic, was beaten to death by other inmates last week.

On Sept. 26, Martinez was attacked by three other inmates in the yard at Calipatria State Prison in Imperial County.

“At approximately 1:23 p.m., staff observed incarcerated person Tyler A. Lua strike Martinez, knocking him to the ground and continuing to hit him. Lua stepped away, and Jorge D. Negrete-Larios and Luis J. Beltran began striking Martinez as he lay motionless.”

Though staff intervened with pepper spray and one baton strike, Martinez’ had been severely injured by an “incarcerated-manufactured weapon” AKA a shiv, and was declared dead an hour after the initial incident.

Two inmate-made improvised weapons were found at the scene.

Lua, Negrete-Larios and Beltran have been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation.

Martinez had been transferred to Calipatria from Orange County in 2010, after he was sentenced to death for his part in the murder-for-hire of a Buena Park businessman.

He was also sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for attempted first-degree murder with an enhancement for street gang activity and two years for street gang activity, to be served concurrent with the condemned sentence.

In 2002, Martinez and three other “Pacoima Flats” gang members were hired by the sister of 44-year-old David Montemayor after an extended dispute over finances and the family trucking company.

Martinez acted as the getaway driver after the group’s plan to kidnap Montemayor failed catastrophically, leaving the Buena Park man gunned down in the street just yards away from his home.

Reporting from the Los Angeles Times describes Martinez as a powerful member of the Mexican mafia who orchestrated murders whilst on death row.

There are currently 623 people on death row in California, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

On March 13, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order instituting a moratorium on the death penalty in California in the form of a reprieve for all people sentenced to death

The last person executed in California was Clarence Ray Allen, a murderer and proxy killer, in 2006.

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