Inmate’s Death Ruled a Homicide

A deadly confrontation between two cellmates at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla has been ruled a homicide, officials said Wednesday. It is the first inmate killing in a California women’s prison, officials believe.

Sometime after 8 a.m. Tuesday, a prison nurse heard screams from a cell and saw Rosalinda Duran, 29, strangling and punching cellmate Michelle Ann Yglesias, 30, with an unidentified object as Yglesias lay on the floor, said Erica Smith, spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating the case.

Guards separated the women, and prison staff tried to revive Yglesias before paramedics arrived. Yglesias was pronounced dead at 10:02 a.m.

The two women were living in the state’s only security housing unit for female inmates who have committed crimes at other prisons. With about 3,900 inmates, Valley State is one of the largest women’s prisons in the state.

Yglesias had been convicted several times since 1997 of drug charges and car theft, and Duran was incarcerated for carjacking and first-degree robbery, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Both women had extensive behavioral violations in prison, Thornton said.

The Madera County sheriff-coroner ruled Yglesias’ death a homicide from preliminary autopsy reports, Smith said.

A Valley State Prison inmate died Oct. 16 of a stress-induced heart attack after an altercation in the exercise area with a prisoner. Officials ruled 36-year-old Patricia Toledo’s death an accident spurred by the physical conflict, Smith said.