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Three inmates serving life sentences — two of them with visible Nazi tattoos — are accused of attacking and killing another prisoner at Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey County, California, according to state officials.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said the incident occurred around 9:55 a.m. Thursday, when correctional officers saw inmates Todd Givens, Robert England, and Ray Waldron assaulting another man in the recreation yard with improvised weapons. Guards ordered the men to stop, but the victim, 57-year-old Todd Morgan, was fatally wounded and died a short time later. No staff or other inmates were injured.
Morgan had been serving a life sentence under California’s “three strikes” law following a conviction for second-degree burglary and firearm possession with prior felonies out of Santa Clara County. He arrived at the facility in 2022 and would have eventually been eligible for parole consideration.
The accused attackers were all serving life sentences for murder, including one who was originally sentenced to death before California imposed a moratorium on executions.
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Todd Givens, 56, was sentenced to death for first-degree murder in Tulare County and has been in state custody for 21 years. While imprisoned, he was convicted of additional offenses, including possessing a weapon and assault.
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Robert England, 61, entered the California prison system in 1993 following a first-degree murder conviction in San Bernardino County. He later received multiple additional life sentences for assaults committed while incarcerated.
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Ray Waldron, 51, was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, attempted murder, and assault out of San Diego County. He received another life term last year for attempting to kill someone while already in prison.
Photos released by CDCR show Givens with a large swastika tattoo on his right cheek and England with “SS” lightning bolt tattoos — symbols associated with Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, or SS, during Nazi Germany. Waldron also has several facial tattoos that are less distinguishable.
White supremacist and neo-Nazi gangs are known to operate within several of California’s maximum-security prisons, including Salinas Valley, which houses more than 2,400 inmates and provides specialized care for prisoners with severe mental health conditions.
Officials have not said whether ideology played any role in the killing. The three suspects have been placed in restrictive housing pending an investigation.
This marks the second suspected inmate homicide at Salinas Valley State Prison in just over a week. On October 14, another prisoner — serving a 14-year sentence for corporal injury and false imprisonment — was killed, allegedly by a fellow inmate.