The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is investigating a murder at High Desert State Prison. Friday around 10 am, inmates William Lutts and Timothy Smith attacked another inmate Terrance Coleman. The department reported Officers and Prison staff responded within minutes of the incident, but Coleman was pronounced dead. Lutts was also injured severely and was taken to an out-of-the-area hospital. Smith has been taken to the segregation unit while the attack is being investigated.
The deceased, 51-year-old Coleman, was serving life with parole for assault with a deadly weapon, 2nd-degree robbery, and mayhem; he was doing an additional 12 years for voluntary manslaughter while in prison, in addition to previous sentences for robbery and assault.
Lutts and Smith also carried extensive criminal history both outside and while incarcerated, serving extended stays in state prison; Smith was most recently released on parole in 2010.
The Lassen county coroner will determine Coleman’s official cause of death.
