Son who tried to murder his father in RivCo is accused of killing a fellow inmate

CALIFORNIA – A Desert Hot Springs man was transferred to state prison in February after being convicted in November of attempted murder and other charges.

Now he is suspected of having killed a fellow inmate.

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the August 19 death of inmate Michael R. Spengler, 38, at Salinas Valley State Prison is being investigated as a homicide; 31-year-old Miguel A. Espino is the only suspect.

The investigation began around 10:30 a.m. that day, when Espino allegedly attacked Spengler. Less than 40 minutes later, officials pronounced Spengler dead.

An inmate-made weapon was found at the scene, prison officials said, but further details were not released. The Monterey County coroner will determine Spengler's official cause of death.

It is not clear what led to the alleged attack, but both men have a violent past.

Espino was found guilty in a jury trial in November of attempted murder, arson, aggravated assault and criminal weapons charges in connection with the 2018 attack on his father, Arturo Espino Sr.

Riverside County Superior Court records show that Espino and his father argued regularly and sometimes got into physical altercations, mostly due to the younger Espino's tumultuous behavior.

Previous incidents included uncontrolled outbreaks that resulted in the destruction of the father's mobile home.

There was also an instance in which neighbors observed Miguel Espino pinning his father's arms behind his back and dragging him across a street in the trailer park where Arturo Espino and his wife lived in the 15600 block of Palm Drive in Desert Hot Springs, court records show.

On the afternoon of August 7, 2018, another argument broke out in the apartment, with only father and son present. According to the complaint, the argument resulted in the defendant allegedly hitting his father on the head with a hammer, causing serious injuries.

Prosecutors alleged that after the victim fell to the ground unconscious, Miguel Espino grabbed a pile of clothes and used flammable liquids to set them on fire in the apartment's hallway, then ran away.

Neighbors noticed the smoke and rushed into the burning building, where they contained the fire with a fire extinguisher and called 911.

They pulled the unconscious victim outside, and moments later the fire department arrived and completely extinguished the smoldering fire, according to the indictment. An arson investigator immediately determined that the fire had been deliberately set.

Arturo Espino was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. Doctors there were initially unsure whether he would survive due to the severity of the blows. He was in a coma for days before regaining consciousness.

An update on his condition was not available.

Desert Hot Springs police and Cal Fire identified Miguel Espino as the prime suspect, according to court documents, based on conversations with neighbors and his mother, who had moved out of the trailer park and had obtained a restraining order against her son out of fear for her life and property.

On August 8, 2018, the defendant was tracked down and taken into custody without incident. He denied injuring his father, but recorded conversations between Miguel Espino and his mother in prison confirmed that he had attacked the victim, prosecutors said.

The report included a transcript of a conversation in which Miguel Espino claimed that his father tried to attack him with a knife, after which he hit the victim with a rock and a hammer.

He also told investigators that someone else was in the house and set the fire.

The defendant has no prior criminal convictions in Riverside County.

Spengler was last transferred to a state prison from Los Angeles County on August 9, 2022, to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree and premeditated murder in the winter of 2013. He killed 32-year-old Michael Meza of Pomona and 26-year-old Marcus Nieto of Azusa.

“Both murders appear to have been surprise attacks on friends of the defendant,” said Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall as he sentenced Spengler to life in prison without parole in July 2022. “They appear to have been largely senseless.”

Spengler confessed to the murders to an informant in prison.

Hall said he believed Spengler “should never be released from prison” and expressed his conviction that the defendant was an “extremely dangerous man.”

Assistant District Attorney Martin Bean said the motive for the killings is unknown.

—City News Service contributed to this report.