Three Merced County inmates indicted in 12-minute deadly beating of cellmate

A Merced County Grand Jury indicted three inmates and known gang members in a brutal beating death in June of another inmate that lasted 12 minutes, the Merced County District Attorney’s Office reported Tuesday.

Steven Rincon, 27 and Reyes Carrillo, 23, both of Los Banos, are accused of beating 31-year-old Aaron Bonilla for 12 minutes on June 11 in a jail cell while 23-year-old Alfonso Martinez, of Merced, stood as a lookout, prosecutors said in a statement.

Deputy District Attorney Mike McKinney, who is prosecuting the case, said the district attorney’s office will use the indictment as a way to move quickly toward trial and bypass a preliminary hearing.

Bonilla was found lying on the ground of his jail cell in Merced County Jail in downtown during a routine security check, sheriff’s officials have reported. He was airlifted to a Modesto hospital where he died from his injuries on June 25.

“For nearly 12 minutes, the victim was savagely beaten by people he counted as friends, simply because he didn’t smuggle drugs into the jail as he was directed,” McKinney said.

Rincon, Carrillo and Martinez were indicted on first-degree murder with gang enhancements.

Sheriff’s officials said the inmates were kept in a jail cell designated for Norteño gang members that house eight violent offenders together in an old facility.

Lt. Corey Gibson, the commander of the main jail facility, said the inmates waited until after a security check to gang up on Bonilla.

“He was beaten for a long period of time and they stopped and caught their breath and kept going,” Gibson said.

After the beating, inmates alerted jail staff, and correctional officers found Bonilla within minutes after the assault ended, he said.

Sheriff Vern Warnke said low staffing at the jail facilities makes it hard for correctional officers to respond with the proper number of personnel to such incidents.

“Our staffing levels are low, and don’t think for a minute those inmates don’t know it,” he said. “We’re very sorry an inmate had to die.”

Warnke said the sheriff’s office has “hard evidence” that Rincon, Carrillo and Martinez beat Bonilla, but declined to confirm whether the violence was captured on video.

Gibson said the number of correctional officers on duty for a shift varies but typically ranges from six to eight. The jail typically houses about 170 inmates, which is about 90 percent of capacity.

The downtown jail facility, built in the 1960s, was designed for low-level general population offenders. Now, hardened gang members are held there while awaiting trial for serious crimes, such as homicide. Lower level and nonviolent inmates are housed in the John Latorraca Correctional Center on Sandy Mush Road.

The way the four linear blocks are designed makes it difficult to look down an aisle and see into a cell, Gibson said. The sheriff’s office has proposed a new jail construction project that will hold more than 250 inmates in a pod style so staff can stand in the middle of a block and see into each cell.

Bonilla was booked into jail three days before the beating on suspicion of car theft and possession of burglary tools, booking records show.

Rincon is in custody awaiting trial for a 2015 incident in which he’s charged with assault with a deadly weapon on Merced police officer Ryan Rasmussen. Rincon was believed to be the driver of a car that officers stopped moments before his passenger initiated a gun battle with police.

Carrillo was jailed in connection with the 2015 death of Edward Soriano Ortez. Investigators allege Carrillo killed the 43-year-old man for trying to drop out of a gang.

Martinez was in jail for his role in a robbery and attempted murder of a Merced 7-Eleven clerk in November, prosecutors said. Martinez this week was held to answer on robbery charges involving a firearm and causing great bodily injury.

All three inmates remain in custody with no bail, booking records show. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Merced Superior Court next week.

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Three Merced County inmates indicted in 12-minute deadly beating of cellmate."