California prison inmate dies, triggering homicide probe. What’s known about suspect?

Officials are investigating the death of a prison inmate Saturday morning as a homicide, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Around 7:30 a.m., officers at California State Prison, Sacramento saw Joseph D. Horne, 42, and Deshai C. Moore, 33, fighting in their cell, department officials stated in a news release. When officers got inside, they found Horne motionless on the ground.

Horne was taken to the Treatment and Triage Area at the prison, also known as New Folsom, where he was pronounced dead about 7:45 a.m, the department said. Officers identified Moore as the suspect and moved him to solitary confinement while officials investigate.

Officials said Horne was received by the California prison system from Monterey County in June 2005, bringing with him a life without parole sentence for charges that included first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

Moore was received in February 2009 from Los Angeles County, with a 14-year sentence for two counts of second-degree robbery with the use of a firearm. The department said Moore received an additional sentence of two years, eights months in November 2011 from Imperial County while incarcerated for battery against a custodial officer.

The Sacramento County coroner will determine Horne’s official cause of death.

CSP-SAC houses maximum security inmates serving long sentences or those who have proved to be management problems at other institutions. The institution also serves as a medical hub for Northern California.

It has more than 1,600 incarcerated people, according to the corrections department.