(L) Karapet Demirdzhyan and (R) Mario Martinez. Photo: CDCR
SOLEDAD, Calif. - California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said they are investigating the death of 66-year-old incarcerated man at Salinas Valley State Prison on Thursday as a homicide.
Officers noticed that Karapet Demirdzhyan was unresponsive in his cell during a security check in a housing unit at 6:15 a.m.
Staff tried to save him, but Demirdzhyan was pronounced dead at 6:53 a.m., according to a news release from CDCR.
Prison officials have placed Demirdzhyan’s cellmate, Mario A. Martinez, has been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation.
CDCR did not say how Demirdzhyan was killed, or a possible motive between the two men.
Demirdzhyan had been in prison from Los Angeles since 1996. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder with an enhancement for the use of a firearm.
Martinez, 35, also came from Los Angeles in 2015.
He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder. While incarcerated, he was also sentenced to 17 years by Kern County in 2018, for assault by a prisoner with a deadly weapon.
KSBW Action News reported there were at least five homicides at Salinas Valley State Prison in 2025.
Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey County houses approximately 2,400 people in minimum and maximum custody.