Lancaster Prison Cellmate Killing Marks Second Suspected Homicide This Year

A 32-year-old man from San Diego County who was serving time for assault with a deadly weapon has died at a Lancaster state prison in what officials are investigating as a homicide. Francisco A. Perez was found unresponsive in his cell during a security check around 1:45 a.m. on August 22, and was pronounced dead about a half-hour later, according to corrections officials.

Perez had been housed at California State Prison, Los Angeles County with a cellmate, Juan R. Saucedo, who was already serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. As reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, Saucedo has been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation, though authorities have not stated how Perez is believed to have died or why the death is being treated as a homicide.

The case is now being investigated jointly by the CSP-LAC Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, according to a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation news release. Under CDCR protocol, an oversight notification has also been submitted to the Office of the Inspector General, standard practice whenever an inmate death is investigated as a homicide.

A Violent History Behind Bars and Before It

Perez entered state custody on February 4, 2016, to serve a 14-year sentence out of San Diego County as a second striker for assault with a deadly weapon, with his sentence including an enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury, per the Union-Tribune's reporting. His record in custody continued to grow: CDCR records show he was also sentenced in San Diego County in 2016 for battery on emergency personnel, and the state's own records indicate a related 1-year, 4-month in-prison term connected to that case. He was later sentenced again in Kern County — in 2010 according to the Union-Tribune, though CDCR records list the term as originating in March 2020 — for resisting or deterring an officer with threat or violence while incarcerated.

Saucedo's life-without-parole sentence traces back to a violent spree in Culver City and Lennox in September 2017, when he was charged with capital murder for shooting three people — his father, a carjacking victim, and a third victim — according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announcement reported by Patch. Charging documents relayed by that outlet show Saucedo had prior felony convictions for carjacking in 2001 and criminal threats in 2009 before that shooting spree. He was ultimately sentenced to life without parole in Los Angeles County in 2020 for first-degree murder, and was later sentenced to four years in San Luis Obispo County in 2023 for possession of a controlled substance while in prison, per the Union-Tribune.

Second Suspected Homicide at CSP-LAC This Year

Perez's death is at least the second suspected inmate homicide at CSP-LAC in 2026. On February 3, 49-year-old Wilbert Lucero was found unresponsive in his cell with multiple sharp-force injuries, according to Hollywood LA News, which reported that three inmates were placed in restricted housing following that killing.

The Lancaster facility, which opened in February 1993 as the first and only state prison located in Los Angeles County, spans 262 acres, according to a legal guide published by the Helfend Law Group. As of March 2026, the prison housed 3,272 inmates despite a design capacity of just 2,300, putting it at 142.3 percent of capacity, per monthly population data from the CDCR Division of Correctional Policy Research. CDCR institutional profiles show roughly 1,500 staff members are tasked with managing about 3,000 minimum- and maximum-custody inmates across the facility's Level I and Level IV housing units.

Part of a Broader Pattern of Prison Violence

Perez's death also fits into a wider trend of lethal violence across California's prison system. The Los Angeles Times reported that state prisons recorded at least 13 suspected inmate homicides through late April 2025, underscoring persistent challenges with severe violence behind bars statewide. CDCR has swept 21 prisons for contraband in the past in response to surges in violence, including at CSP-LAC.

No additional charges have yet been announced against Saucedo in connection with Perez's death, and officials have not disclosed further details about how the two men came to share a cell. The investigation by the CSP-LAC Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office remains ongoing.