A man serving a life sentence for two murders died Monday after being attacked by another inmate at a state prison in Salinas, according to state officials.
Michael Spengler, 38, was attacked 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 Los Angeles Superior Court of two murders in 2022. He killed a man in Pomona and another in Altadena during the winter of 2013. A judge called the killings “surprise ambushes” of Spengler’s own friends.
“Both murders appear to have been surprise ambushes of the defendant’s friends,” Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall said when he sentenced Spengler to life in prison without parole, according to City News Service. “They appear to be largely absurd.”
Spengler confessed to the murders to a jailhouse informant, who was paid a $20,000 reward by the county for helping solve the case.
Espino was convicted last year of attempted murder after brutally beating his father with a rock and hammer and then setting fire to his mobile home. He was also found guilty of arson for the 2018 attack.
Espino was similarly convicted for his own comments in jail, after speaking to his mother in recorded phone calls about the attack.
