Prisoner convicted of 2 murders slain by fellow inmate in Salinas
Michael Spengler was serving a life term for ‘surprise ambushes’ of his friends in 2013.
A man serving a life sentence for two murders died Monday after he was attacked by another inmate at a state prison in Salinas, according to state officials.
Michael Spengler, 38, was attacked Monday around 10:30 a.m. at Salinas Valley State Prison by Miguel Espino, 31, who allegedly used an “inmate manufactured weapon,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Spengler died about 30 minutes after the attack and Espino was placed in restricted housing pending an investigation.
Spengler had been at the prison for two years after he was convicted in 2022 in Los Angeles County Superior Court of two homicides. He killed one man in Pomona and another in Altadena in the winter of 2013. A judge called the killings “surprise ambushes” by Spengler.
“Both murders appear to have been surprise ambushes of the defendant’s friends,” Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall said when he sentenced Spengler to life without the possibility of parole, City News Service reported. “They appear to be largely senseless.”
Spengler confessed to the murders to a jailhouse informant, who was paid $20,000 in reward money by the county for helping to solve the case.
Espino was convicted last year of attempted murder after he severely beat his father with a rock and a hammer, then set fire to his mobile home. He was also found guilty of arson for the 2018 attack.
Espino was similarly convicted off his own jailhouse comments, after he spoke to his mother on recorded phone calls about the attack.