19-year-old murder convict killed by 2 other inmates in state prison, officials say

A 19-year-old man sentenced last year to life in prison for murder was killed by two other inmates at a Northern California state prison last week, corrections officials said.

Employees at High Desert State Prison in Susanville saw inmates Christopher Dolan and Michael Ellison attack Michael Hastey with manufactured weapons Friday morning in an exercise yard, officials alleged.

Correctional officers broke up the attack with chemical agents and batons and started first aid but Hastey died about an hour later, authorities said.

Prison officials and the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the death as a homicide. Authorities did not say what motivated the attack.

In June, Hastey was sentenced in Trinity County to life in prison with the possibility of parole. News accounts said he was convicted as an adult for the January 2019 stabbing of Nathan Purdue during a jealous rage.

Dolan, 30, is serving a nearly six-year sentence from Ventura County for assault and resisting an officer.

Ellison, 39, is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for a murder in Riverside County. He has been in prison since 2004. He has been sentenced to additional time twice for making weapons and twice for assaulting a fellow prisoner, in 2005 and 2017.