The man who killed 7 people is suspected in the murders of cellmates in a California prison

LOS ANGELES – A California inmate has been sentenced to life in prison for killing seven people suspected of killing his cellmate at the Kern County Jail on Friday, the state Department of Corrections said.

Juan Villanueva, 53, was found unresponsive around 8:50 a.m. in the cell he shared with Ramon Escobar at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s North Kern State Prison. said in a statement.

Villanueva was pronounced dead moments later.

The case is being investigated as a homicide and Escobar, 51, is the suspect, the department said. The cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner’s office.

Escobar is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of five counts of murder. He pleaded guilty to most charges and pleaded no contest to a fifth in 2022, according to court records.

Several of the dead were homeless Beaten to death, officials said. He also beat and robbed other victims, prosecutors said at the time. Some victims were attacked while they slept and Escobar used a bat or blunt object.

Escobar, who is originally from Texas, also pleaded guilty to murder in the deaths of his uncle and aunt in that state. Houston’s NBC affiliate KPRC reported in time

Villanueva was serving a life sentence without parole for sexually assaulting a child under 14, the Department of Corrections said.

He was sentenced in 2022 and was transferred to the department’s custody on February 2.

Escobar has been moved to restrictive housing pending the results of the investigation, a department spokeswoman said.

This article was originally published NBCNews.com