FOLSOM — California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the death of an incarcerated person Tuesday at California State Prison, Sacramento in Folsom, as a homicide.
At approximately 2 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 11, staff at the Folsom prison were alerted to an unresponsive incarcerated person inside a cell. Staff found 37-year-old Walter Badelle unconscious and immediately began lifesaving measures while activating 911, according to CDCR.
Outside medical ambulance personnel responded to the prison and pronounced Badelle dead at 2:51 p.m.
Badelle’s cellmate, 45-year-old Jonathan Blackwell, was placed in handcuffs and removed from the cell. Blackwell was subsequently placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the prison’s Investigative Services Unit and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.The Office of the Inspector General has also been notified of the death and investigation.
Badelle was received into CDCR custody from Los Angeles County on July 10, 2008. He was serving a 25-year sentence for second-degree robbery with enhancements under the Street Gang Act and for use of a firearm.
While incarcerated, Badelle received an additional sentence from Los Angeles County on Jan. 7, 2026, of two years and eight months for manufacture of a deadly weapon by a prisoner.
Blackwell was received from Los Angeles County on May 26, 2010. He is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.
California State Prison, Sacramento, commonly known as SAC, opened in 1986. The prison houses more than 2,200 medium-, maximum- and high-security incarcerated people and employs approximately 1,500 people. The institution also offers academic classes and vocational programs. The investigation into Badelle’s death remains ongoing.
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