California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the Jan. 29, 2025, death of an incarcerated person at North Kern State Prison as a homicide.
At 5:04 p.m., officers were conducting security rounds when they found incarcerated person Enrique Gomeztagle unresponsive in his cell. Officers immediately initiated life-saving measures and activated 911. Emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene and continued administering lifesaving measures. Hernandez was pronounced deceased at 5:34 p.m.
Another incarcerated person, Kevin T. Langston, who was housed in the same cell, was removed and placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the NKSP Investigative Services Unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
The Office of the Inspector General has been notified, and the Kern County Coroner will determine Gomeztagle’s official cause of death.
Gomeztagle, 31, was most recently received from Sacramento County on December 12, 2024, to serve two years, eight months for second-degree burglary as a second striker.
Langston, 34, was most recently received from Los Angeles County on December 18, 2024, to serve four years for first-degree burglary as a second striker.
NKSP, which opened in 1993, houses more than 2,600 minimum-, medium- and maximum-security incarcerated people. The prison, located in Kern County, provides educational, medical and mental health services.
