Background: News footage of Salinas Valley State Prison (KTVU). Insets (left to right): Nicolas Young, Joseph Mendoza, and Edgar Frayre (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation).
The family of a man who was fatally stabbed within a California prison has initiated legal action, accusing prison staff of filming the assault instead of intervening to offer aid.
Documents reviewed by Law&Crime reveal that 36-year-old Joseph Mendoza was serving a 22-year sentence at Salinas Valley State Prison in January 2025. He was caught with drugs meant for distribution among inmates. In the wake of this incident, Mendoza expressed his fears to prison guards, warning of a “predictable and significant threat of violent retaliation” from the Norteño prison gang. Despite Mendoza’s repeated formal requests for a transfer to protective custody, he remained in the general population.
The lawsuit claims that once other inmates became aware of Mendoza’s appeals for protection, the threat to his life heightened considerably.
According to the lawsuit, on April 8, 2025, Mendoza was attacked by two inmates linked to the Norteño gang, Nicolas Young and Edgar Frayre. The assault took place in the “dayroom floor,” an area recognized by staff as “high-risk.” Young and Frayre reportedly stabbed Mendoza almost 180 times with improvised weapons, inflicting severe wounds to his head, face, neck, torso, and back.
During the three-minute ordeal, correctional officers, armed and positioned above, reportedly recorded the attack with their phones instead of stepping in to halt it. The complaint states that rather than intervening, the officers “stood by and observed” as Mendoza was “butchered,” ultimately bleeding to death on the floor.
The lawsuit further alleges that the officers failed to summon backup or provide medical assistance in time to save Mendoza, who was declared dead at the scene.
The lawsuit alleged that the officers who were present for the attack failed to preserve evidence at the scene. Instead, following the attack and Mendoza’s death, employees at the prison shared the video of the attack and posted it to social media. The video of the “graphic assault” and Mendoza’s “mutilated remains” went viral, and it was seen by Mendoza’s family members, who have suffered “profound psychological and emotional trauma” on top of their grief.
During a press conference on Wednesday with Mendoza’s family and their legal team that was covered by local Fox affiliate KMPH, attorney Bryan Harrison said, “This was raw, bloody slaughter and no one had the right to turn his murder into entertainment. It’s perverse.”
In an interview with another local Fox affiliate, KTVU, Mendoza attorney Adante Pointer of Pointer & Buelna LLP, said, “We have not heard a peep from CDCR as to who did this,” adding, “All of the officers involved should be summarily fired.” No officers are identified by name in the lawsuit.
The investigation into the stabbing is still ongoing. In court documents reviewed by Law&Crime, California Attorney General Rob Bonta denied the claims made in the lawsuit. In a press release issued shortly after the killing, the CDCR stated that Mendoza was provided medical aid after the attack.
Mendoza’s father told KTVU, “I’m not looking for revenge.” He wants to make sure “somebody else’s son or daughter doesn’t come home in a box.”
