Man convicted in connection with deadly La Jolla drive-by dies in prison

A 26-year-old man who pleaded guilty last year to his role in a deadly drive-by shooting in La Jolla died in prison this week, and his death is being investigated as a homicide, state prisons officials said Thursday.

Malik Joshua Campbell was found unresponsive in his cell at California Correctional Institution about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a news release.

Staffers at the Tehachapi prison removed Campbell’s 29-year-old cellmate and began attempting life-saving measures on Campbell. Officials said he died in the prison’s triage and treatment area about a half hour after he’d been found.

The cellmate was moved to restricted housing, and authorities are investigating Campbell’s death as a suspected homicide following a review by the Kern County Coroner’s office, state prisons officials said. No weapon was found at the scene.

Campbell died exactly a year to the day after he was sentenced to 24 years in prison in connection with the June 23, 2019, shooting that killed Nina Silver, 20, and injured three others.

Prosecutors alleged that gang motivations were behind the shooting, and Silver — a Poway High School graduate who’d been shot in the back — was not the intended target.

Campbell and co-defendant Odyssey Sellers Carrillo — who authorities suspected was the shooter — pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and various other charges. Carrillo was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison.

City News Service contributed to this report.