ORLANDO CARBONELL

The man convicted of murdering a co-worker at Silverwood Lake in 2004 — Orlando Carbonell, 50 — has apparently been killed by his cellmate at Mule Creek State prison in Ione. (Photo by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

By Michael P. Neufeld

Ione, CA – Orlando Carbonell, 50, convicted of murdering a co-worker at Silverwood Lake on July 19. 2004, was pronounced dead at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione after prison officials found him unresponsive in his cell. He was convicted of killing 51-year-old Edmund Marrujo of Palmdale. The two worked at the Veterans Administration healthcare center in West Los Angeles.

Orlando Carbonell (Booking Photo)

Marrujo’s body was found by workers at the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency’s Clarifer Plant at Silverwood Lake.

CARBONELL DEATH

Investigators at Mule Creek State Prison and the Amador County District Attorney’s office are investigating Carbonell’s death as a possible homicide, due to injuries received during an apparent in-cell disturbance on Tuesday, May 28.

Carbonell’s cellmate — 47-year-old Efrain Gutierez — has been named as a suspect in the case, according to a media release issued by the California Department of Corrections. Gutierez was received by the Department of Corrections in January 2010, from Riverside County, to serve a 16-year to life term for second-degree murder.

The cause of death has yet to be determined.

CARBONELL SENTENCE

Carbonell, a former resident of Palmdale, had been sentenced to serve a 25-year to life term for Marrujo’s first-degree murder. He was also sentenced to a one-year consecutive term under a deadly weapon enhancement, a machete

He was received by the Department of Corrections on November 24, 2009.

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