Guard at Northern California state prison attacked

7/11/2014

SOLEDAD, Calif.— A state prison guard was sent to a hospital after being stabbed repeatedly in the back of the head by an inmate armed with a handmade weapon.

Prison Lt. Darren Chamberlain said David Gomez slipped out of his handcuffs before the attack about 1 p.m. Friday at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad. Chamberlain says the guard’s wounds do not appear to be serious.

The attack occurred in a disciplinary isolation unit at the prison in Soledad, about an hour southeast of Monterey.

The 48-year-old inmate is serving a life sentence from Los Angeles County for rape, oral copulation with a child under age 14, and burglary.

He also is on trial in Monterey County on charges that he killed his cellmate in 2004.