California Convict Chopped In Half, Organs Removed During Prison Riot

An inmate in a California prison was reportedly sawed almost in two and dumped in a nearby bathroom garbage can following a prison riot.

The body was found with its abdominal and chest organs missing.

The grisly incident occurred at California State Prison, Solano, a medium-security facility located in the city of Vaccaville where about 60 prisoners got into a brawl on the date in question.

Authorities identified the victim as Nicholas Anthony Rodriguez, 24, an Oakland resident who was serving an eight-year sentence for robbery. Corrections officers didn’t find his body until about 15 hours after the riot. Guards initially assumed that the Rodriguez might have escaped in the melee.

Prison officials reportedly consider Rodriguez’s cellmate, a man serving time for murder, as the only suspect so far.

Among other things, it is unknown how a prisoner could obtain the specific weapons necessary to disembowel a body. Said a Department of Corrections spokeswoman about the crime, the victim’s missing organs are “still part of the investigation.”

The Associated Press just obtained the autopsy report about the May 4 incident under a freedom of information request, which is how this wrongdoing came to light.

According to the head of the prison guards union, the state of California is incarcerating more violent criminals in medium-security or less-secure facilities that are inadequately staffed with officers. As such, he ominously deemed the Solano incident as “just a precursor.”

“Among the questions investigators want to answer are how the killing occurred, what weapon was used to mutilate the body and why it took guards five hours to find Rodriguez’s body after he was reported missing,” SFGate explained.

Officials are also trying to figure out if the riot was staged to cover up the murder and/or to enable the victim’s body to be removed from the jail cell.

Reacting to this incident, the executive director of a crime victims organization admitted to astonishment that this gruesome attack could be carried out or that corrections officers took so long to find the victim.

“Unfortunately, we know that there are drugs, there’s alcohol, there are weapons. As much as the officers can police that, we know we’ve got the toughest, the baddest, the most violent criminals in our state prison and unfortunately some of the most cunning prisoners in there as well. They are going to find ways to do that.”

In additon to the prisoner who was diabolically chopped in half and gutted according to the autopsy, about 160 murders have been committed in California jails since the year 2000.

[image via Twitter]