Crime & Safety
Lake Elsinore Murderer Suspected of Killing Prison Inmate
Joseph David Dorsey killed his Canyon Lake girlfriend in 2012 and stuffed her body into a suitcase.
A convicted murderer from Lake Elsinore is suspected of fatally beating a fellow inmate at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, state officials say.
Joseph David Dorsey, 31, was sentenced in September 2013 to 56 years to life in prison for the strangulation murder of a drug counselor he had been dating. According to the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Dorsey is suspected of killing his cell mate, 39-year-old Jason M. Christopher, sometime Thursday evening.
CDCR spokesman Lt. Michael Betzinger said Christopher was found unconscious and not breathing about 8 p.m. and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later after efforts to revive him failed.
Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
There was no word on circumstances leading up to the attack.
Dorsey has been placed in a segregation unit at the prison pending further investigation by the Kern County District Attorney's Office, according to Betzinger.
Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
He said that Christopher was serving a two-year sentence for burglary and had incurred several in-custody convictions for battery on a prison staff member, assault and possession of a deadly weapon.
Dorsey killed 47-year-old Christine Stewart of Canyon Lake in the first week of August 2012. The convicted felon had been receiving substance abuse counseling from the victim for weeks as part of his parole and became enraged following a sexual encounter in which she informed him of plans to marry another man.
Dorsey choked her, then used a phone cord to strangle her. When she still exhibited signs of life, he carried her to the bathroom in his apartment, filled the tub full of water and plunged the unconscious woman's head into it until she died, according to trial testimony.
The ex-con then stuffed the 5-foot-2, 100-pound victim into a suitcase and dumped it at a Poway motel before attempting to flee to Mexico.
– By City News Service. Patch file photo of Joseph David Dorsey.
