WASCO – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the March 14, 2025, death of an incarcerated person at Wasco State Prison (WSP) as a homicide.
At approximately 2:29 p.m., staff observed incarcerated persons Jose D. Castro and Darnell Rodas attacking incarcerated person Angel Carrasco in Facility A. Staff responded, quelling the attack by utilizing chemical agents and non-lethal weapons.
Officers immediately initiated life-saving measures on Carrasco and activated 911. Carrasco was taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area and then to an outside medical facility. A hospital physician pronounced Carrasco deceased at 3:51 p.m.
Officers recovered two improvised weapons at the scene of the attack. No other injuries were reported. Officials have limited movement in Facility A where the attack occurred to facilitate the investigation.
Rodas and Castro have been placed in restricted housing pending an investigation by the WSP Investigative Services Unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office. The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Kern County Coroner will determine Carrasco’s official cause of death.
Carrasco, 34, was received from Tulare County on December 31, 2009. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle at a person, with enhancements for a street gang act and intentional discharge of firearm causing great bodily injury / death.
Rodas, 22, was most recently received from Los Angeles County on February 28, 2024. He was sentenced to four years for second-degree robbery as a second striker.
Castro, 37, was received from Los Angeles County on January 13, 2025. He was sentenced to 21 years for voluntary manslaughter with an enhancement for the use of a firearm.
WSP, located in Kern County, opened in 1991 and houses approximately 3,900 incarcerated people and employs about 1543 staff. The primary mission of WSP is to provide short-term housing necessary to process, classify and evaluate people newly admitted to state prison physically and mentally, and to determine their security level, program requirements, and appropriate institutional placement. A 1,000-bed medium custody facility houses general population inmates to help support and maintain the reception center. A 400-bed minimum-custody facility provides institutional maintenance and landscaping services.
Angel Carrasco (Deceased)
Darnell Rodas
Jose Castro
