Parole Denied for Violent Gang Member Who Stabbed Correctional Officer in Kern County

Friday, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office said that the California Board of Parole Hearings did not grant parole to a violent gang member who was given a jail sentence at North Kern State Jail and stabbed a prison guard there.

For five years, James Flores, 48, will not be able to get released, according to the DA’s office. The board made this decision on October 9.

In a news release from the DA’s office, it was said that Flores was sent to jail on September 2, 1998, for killing Jadesun Reyes and attacking another person outside of Los Angeles County with a death weapon. But because the law had changed, Flores was given a new punishment for the death of Reyes: voluntary manslaughter.

The DA’s office said that Flores stabbed a correctional officer on March 18, 2000, at North Kern State Prison, when they tried to take him out of his cell to look into his role in an armed assault on another inmate.

A Kern County jury found Flores guilty on Oct. 13, 2000, of assault by a life prisoner, having a weapon, and resisting police. On Nov. 13, 2000, he was given a sentence of 27 years to life in jail.

The Board of Parole Hearings found that Flores had been a member of a gang for a long time and admitted that his attack on the correctional officer with a gun was driven by his membership in a gang. The DA’s office said Flores has continued to hang out with criminal street gangs.