LANCASTER – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the Feb 27, 2025, death of an incarcerated person at California State Prison, Los Angeles County (LAC) as a homicide.
At 12:18 p.m. officers found Joshua Kerr unresponsive in his cell with multiple wounds. Staff immediately began CPR and called 911 for medical assistance. He was pronounced deceased at 12:36 p.m. by an institution doctor.
The incident is under investigation by LAC Investigative Services Unit and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Los Angeles County Coroner will determine official cause of death.
Kerr, 41, was most recently received from Orange County on Dec 18, 2015, and sentenced to 18 years for second-degree attempted murder, street gang act in commission of violent felony, and second-degree robbery. On Feb. 21. 2017, while incarcerated, he was sentenced to one year four months for assault by prisoner with any means of force likely to cause great bodily harm. On Sept 24, 2021, while incarcerated, he was sentenced to eleven years for assault by prisoner with deadly weapon or force likely to cause GBI, in prison offense, second striker.
LAC in Lancaster houses approximately 3,146 minimum- and maximum-security inmates, serves as a medical hub for enhanced outpatient levels of health care, and provides academic classes and vocational programs and employs approximately 1,7003 people.
Joshua Kerr
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb 28, 2025
CONTACT OPEC: OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov
