Ione, CA…Officials at Mule Creek State Prison (MCSP) are investigating the October 14 death of 46-year-old inmate Deandre Austin as a homicide. On Wednesday at 5:40 p.m., correctional officers responding to a call of “man down,” discovered an unresponsive Austin in his cell. Staff immediately called 911 and started life-saving measures.

A MCSP doctor pronounced Austin deceased at 6:30 p.m.

Austin’s cellmate, Rodney Jordan, was placed in segregated housing pending an investigation.

Austin was received from Contra Costa County on Oct. 2, 2008. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for rape, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under age 14, continuous sex abuse of a child under 14, penetration with a foreign object with a victim under 14, oral copulation and sodomy.

Movement at the prison has been modified to aid the investigation. The Amador County District Attorney’s Office is assisting MCSP’s Investigative Services Unit. The Office of the Inspector General has been notified.

Jordan was received from Los Angeles County on Aug. 14, 2017. He was serving a two-year term for first-degree burglary. He was paroled on July 31, 2018 and returned from parole on Sept. 4, 2018 from Los Angeles County for a new conviction. He was sentenced to five years for second-degree robbery.

MCSP, which opened in 1987, houses more than 3,800 minimum-, medium- and maximum-security inmates. The prison, located in Amador County, provides educational, medical and mental health services.