May 7, 2021 - CORCORAN ― Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran (SATF) officials are investigating the May 6 death of inmate James D. Torres, 67, as a homicide.

At 5:12 a.m., a correctional officer found Torres unresponsive in his cell during count. Officers immediately began life-saving measures and summoned an ambulance. Torres was taken to the institution’s medical facility where life-saving measures were continued; however, EMS personnel pronounced Torres deceased at 5:39 a.m.

Torres was admitted from Sacramento County on Jan. 23, 1996, to serve 50 years for rape of a spouse with force/violence, a second strike, and sodomy with force, a second strike.

Torres’ cellmate, Norbert Arres III, has been identified as the suspect in this case. Arres, 37, was admitted from Riverside County on Oct. 25, 2018, to serve six years for possession of/owning a firearm by a felon or addict to include three one-year enhancements for having a prior prison term when the non-violent new offense is any felony.

The Kings County District Attorney’s Office is assisting SATF’s Investigative Services Unit. The Office of the Inspector General was notified.

SATF opened in 1997 and has 1,921 employees. It houses 4,702 minimum-, medium- and high-security custody inmates. The prison provides inmates with work, vocational, academic, educational, self-help, religious and other rehabilitative programs and has a fully licensed correctional treatment center.

James D. Torres

Norbert Arres III