CRESCENT CITY, Ca. (KIEM) – Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) officials are investigating an incident in which an inmate attacked another inmate with a weapon on a recreational yard earlier this month. The victim passed away yesterday, and the case is now a suspected homicide investigation.
On September 19 at 9:30 a.m., inmate Lukes Ladewig, 36, began attacking inmate Jacob King, 25, on the Facility B recreation yard, stabbing him in the chest and back with an inmate-made weapon. After Ladewig ignored orders to stop the assault, responding officers quickly intervened and used chemical agents and a baton to quell the attack.
The inmate-manufactured weapon was recovered at the scene. The Office of the Inspector General was notified.
King sustained serious injuries and an ambulance was summoned. PBSP medical responders attempted life-saving measures and he was transported to an outside hospital for treatment of the puncture wounds to his chest and back. King was pronounced dead at 10:44 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26. He was received from Riverside County on January 16, 2014, and was serving a five-year, eight-month sentence for driving under the influence causing bodily injury or death, his second strike. On August 9, 2016, King received an additional four-year sentence to be served consecutively to his prior term, for assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to cause great bodily injury while incarcerated.
Inmate Ladewig, 36, the suspect, was admitted from Siskiyou County on September 2, 2014, to serve a sentence of 43 years to life with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, his second strike, corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant and attempting to prevent/dissuade a victim/witness from testifying.
Ladewig was treated at PBSP for minor injuries and has been placed in the prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit pending the completion of the investigation. Inmate movement is limited on Facility B as that investigation is taking place.
Pelican Bay State Prison, located in Del Norte County, houses 2,599 minimum-, medium-, and maximum-security inmates. The institution provides high school and college academic classes, career technical education, work assignments, self-help programs, arts-in-corrections, computer literacy and other rehabilitation programs that address substance use disorders, anger management and family relationships. The institution opened in 1989 and employs more than 1,200 people.
