Man already in prison for life sentenced for Northern California prison murders
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Court sentenced Nicholas Mangelli to two additional life terms for inmate murders.
- Jury convicted Mangelli of two first-degree murders and weapons violations in prison.
- Charles Ross and Wayne Caskey were the inmates killed in 2019 and 2022.
A man already serving life in prison for a Sacramento County murder was sentenced on Friday to two additional terms of life in prison for killing two fellow inmates with makeshift knives in separate stabbings at a Northern California prison.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurel White sentenced Nicholas Jeffrey Mangelli, 35, for the two fatal stabbings that occurred three years apart from one another at California State Prison, Sacramento, also known as New Folsom.
A jury on April 29 found Mangelli guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, assault by a prisoner and being in possession of a weapon while in custody for the prison stabbings, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Mangelli’s conviction included special circumstance enhancements for being previously convicted of first-degree murder.
Mangelli was serving a life sentence without the chance of parole for the February 2012 brutal stabbing of a friend, a Citrus Heights man and an Iraq War veteran. Mangelli was convicted of murder for stabbing 26-year-old Michael Allen Cole 74 times during a drug-hazed attack and robbery. Mangelli reportedly told detectives he killed Cole to steal his vintage video games and consoles to sell them for money to buy more drugs.
The first deadly prison stabbing occurred May 30, 2019. Prosecutors said Mangelli had a makeshift knife and approached Charles Anthony Ross, 63, from behind and stabbed him in the head and torso about 15 to 20 times. Prison staff provided medical treatment, but Ross was pronounced dead about 15 minutes after the attack.
Ross was serving a life sentence without the chance of parole after he was convicted in 1997 of first-degree murder and second-degree robbery in Riverside County, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has said.
Prosecutors said Mangelli killed another inmate July 23, 2022, at the prison in Sacramento County. Wayne Albert Caskey Jr., 59, an inmate serving a sentence of 50 years to life in prison for a 2006 Sacramento County murder, was killed in the 2022 prison stabbing, CDCR officials have said.
Caskey was convicted of first-degree murder with a gun in the fatal shooting of 45-year-old Gary R. Brooks on June 11, 2006, in a south Sacramento electronics business owned by the victim’s father. Prosecutors said an argument that had occurred between Brooks and Caskey led to the murder.
Mangelli used a makeshift knife to stab Caskey in the back before the wounded inmate fell to the ground and was stabbed about 15 to 20 times, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Caskey was taken to a medical facility and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the attack.
