A man serving a life sentence for two murders died Monday after being attacked by another inmate at a state prison in Salinas, state officials said.
Michael Spengler, 38, was assaulted around 10:30 a.m. Monday at Salinas Valley State Prison by Miguel Espino, 31, who allegedly used an “inmate-made weapon,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Spengler died about 30 minutes after the attack and Espino was placed in restricted housing pending an investigation.
Spengler had been in prison for two years after being convicted in 2022 in Los Angeles Superior Court of two homicides. He killed a man in Pomona and another in Altadena in the winter of 2013. A judge called the killings “surprise ambushes” by Spengler’s own friends.
“Both murders appear to have been committed by friends of the defendant,” Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall said when he sentenced Spengler to life in prison without parole, according to City News Service. “They appear largely senseless.”
Spengler confessed the murders to a jailhouse informant, who received a $20,000 reward from the county for help solving the case.
Espino was convicted last year of attempted murder after he brutally beat his father with a rock and hammer and then set his mobile home on fire. He was also convicted of arson for the 2018 attack.
Espino was also convicted for his own comments in prison, after speaking to his mother in recorded phone calls about the attack.
