Death of California prison inmate investigated as homicide

SUSANVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Officials are investigating the death of a Northern California state prison inmate as a homicide.

High Desert State Prison officials said Monday that 28-year-old Rodney Delong Jr. was found unresponsive in his short-term restrictive housing unit cell Sunday afternoon.

They named his cellmate, 40-year-old Robert Stockton as a suspect.

Officials say Stockton was also suspected in the 2016 slaying of 53-year-old Douglas Maynard in a prison recreation yard.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton says Maynard was not Stockton’s cellmate and there was no reason at the time to believe that Stockton could not be housed with other inmates.

Stockton already is serving a life sentence for a Tehama County murder.

Delong was serving a nine-year Placer County sentence for burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and possessing a controlled substance.