Sacramento inmate suspected of cellmate’s death is convicted murderer already serving life
A convicted murderer who was moved to Sacramento County Main Jail from state prison last year to appear in a court case was arrested Thursday in the death of his cellmate after a fight inside their cell Wednesday night.
Sergey Gutsu, 32, of Antelope, was serving a life sentence without parole in a 2015 murder in Los Angeles County; and was sentenced to an additional 51 years for an attempted murder and robbery in Sonoma County in 2016. Gutsu has been held in Sacramento County custody since June 2024 on an “order to produce,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office in a Thursday news release.
Gutsu is scheduled to appear March 17 in Sacramento Superior Court in the inmate’s death.
Gutsu was also being held on a no-bail murder warrant in the Aug. 24, 2013, killing of 20-year-old Christian Fafnis-Horton, in Sacramento County, jail records and Sacramento Superior Court files show. His next court appearance in that case is set for March 18.
The Washington state man was visiting friends at their Orangevale apartment complex when he was shot and killed in crossfire stemming from an argument there, according to Seattle television station KOMO-TV.
Sheriff’s officials did not disclose the specifics of the order that brought Gutsu to Sacramento County — from Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran — or the charges that jailed his cellmate.
But under the directive, the prisoner is released from state’s custody to hear a motion, be tried on charges or to testify in court. The order can only be made by a Superior Court judge after affidavits from the county’s District Attorney or defense attorneys and is carried out by the county’s sheriff, who agrees to bring the prisoner to court, safely keep them in custody and return the inmate to state prison once proceedings conclude.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office in an earlier news release said the man’s cellmate, later identified as Gutsu, pressed the emergency button in the fourth-floor west-wing cell about 7 p.m., alerting jail deputies that he had been in a fight with the man. Deputies arrived to find the inmate on the floor of the cell and tried to revive him, deputies said.
The man was later pronounced dead and Gutsu was detained by guards. Sheriff’s homicide and crime scene detectives were now investigating the death. Gutsu was also moved to the jail’s eighth floor, jail records show.
The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office has not yet released the identity of the inmate who died.
In February 2024, Gutsu was sentenced to life in prison in Los Angeles County for the 2015 robbery and murder of a San Dimas sandwich shop owner. Gutsu took $200 in the robbery before fatally shooting the man. Prosecutors said Gutsu killed 62-year-old Pravin Patel because he resisted Gutsu, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario reported.
Prior to trial in the San Dimas killing, Gutsu was being held in Los Angeles County in a July 2016 armored car robbery in Windsor, Sonoma County, that ended with the shooting of a security guard. His accomplice, Ivan Morales, fired the shots that wounded the guard. Gutsu opened fire on police who chased the men into nearby Calistoga before they were captured.
Gutsu was later sentenced to 51 years in state prison for attempted murder and robbery in the North Bay heist, according to the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa.
At least 30 people have died in Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office custody at its jails since 2021. The last Main Jail death happened in November at a hospital after a 54-year-old woman awaiting trial was diagnosed with a terminal illness, deputies said; her name was never released to the public.
Five days later, a 72-year-old man collapsed and died at the sheriff’s Rio Cosumnes Correctional facility near Elk Grove; the results of that death investigation for Hossein Assem remain open but deputies at the time said he had suffered a medical emergency inside a common area of RCCC’s north medical corridor.
The fatal fight comes as state prison officials have moved to restrict some inmate movements at their facilities amid a wave of deadly violence.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation revoked privileges such as visits and phone calls at 11 high-security facilities across the state, including California State Prison, Sacramento, better known as New Folsom. The Represa facility has seen three inmates killed in 2025; last week, six inmates were injured during a riot involving 40 inmates.
The day before the department announced the “modified program,” three inmates were killed in attacks at three different prisons including New Folsom.
The latest homicide, according to the Times, was discovered Friday morning when guards found Jake Kennedy dead in the cell he shared with Tyler Yates. CDCR officials told the Times that, two weeks earlier, Kennedy and Yates allegedly stabbed to death Jonathan Rude, a convicted car thief from Butte County.
The Corcoran facility where Gutsu had come from months ago was also placed under restriction.
Since Jan. 1, seven inmates have been killed in incidents deemed homicides by CDCR officials.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 7:55 AM.
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