Inmate from San Diego Area Accused in Fatal Sacramento County Prison Stabbing

An inmate from San Diego County serving a life sentence at a prison in Sacramento County was under investigation Tuesday for allegedly taking part in the killing of another inmate last weekend at the penitentiary.

Gregory Roach, 35, and two other inmates are suspected of attacking 55-year-old convict Randy Schlaepfer with makeshift bladed weapons shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday at California State Prison Sacramento, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.

Prison staffers used pepper spray and a concussion grenade to quell the altercation, after which paramedics with the Folsom Fire Department pronounced Schlaepfer dead, according to CDCR public affairs.

Roach was sentenced in the San Diego area in April 2014 to a three-year prison term for theft from an elder, two years for illegally possessing ammunition and two more years for possession of a firearm by a felon or addict. In August of the following year, he was transferred to post-release community supervision in San Diego County.

In August 2017, Roach was sentenced to a year in prison for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, and in October 2019, received a 12-year custody term on the same charge. In February of this year, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder under California’s “three strikes” law.

Also suspected of participating in the alleged murder were inmates Gregg Reynolds and Ronald Ricks, according to the corrections department.

Schlaepfer was sentenced in August 2015 to life in prison with the possibility of parole for assault with a deadly weapon by a third-striker inmate, according to CDCR public affairs.

City News Service contributed to this article.