Ricardo Mathews, son of legendary funk singer Rick James, was sentenced Wednesday for assaulting a fellow inmate in prison.
Mathews was serving time in Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, California, when the assault happened on Nov. 29, 2022.
On that day, Mathews had left his cell and crouched down in a fighting stance next to another inmate’s cell while holding a self-made slingshot — a small mass of metal or stone fixed on a flexible handle or strap, the District Attorney’s Office said.
When the other inmate left his cell, Mathews struck him in the face with the slingshot, according to officials. Mathews continued to beat the inmate for 28 seconds until officers stopped him. The victim suffered a broken nose and lacerations that required sutures.
At Mathews’ sentencing hearing Wednesday, Judge David Zulfa sentenced Mathews to 25 years to life in prison, plus 10 years.
New charges
Mathews, 52, was found guilty last month of felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon by a prisoner and being an inmate in possession of a weapon.
Mathews had prior felony convictions in relation to a robbery, intimidating a witness, assault causing great bodily injury and criminal threats, all of which fall under the state’s three-strikes law, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office has said.
Additionally, the court found his performance while on probation was unsatisfactory.
Before his latest conviction, Mathews was scheduled to be released from prison in 2030.
Judge is torn
Supervising Deputy District Attorney David McKillop argued before the sentencing that the defense’s request to eliminate Mathews’ prior strikes due to the age of those convictions should be offset by Mathews’ living a continuous life of crime.
Phillip Gillet, Mathews’ attorney, said his client has a history of substance abuse and mental illness that should be considered for a less severe sentence.
Gillet also said Mathews believed he was targeted by other inmates due to not being a gang member while in prison.
He argued that the sentence of 25 years to life recommended by the prosecution and probation was unfair as the victim had attacked Mathews two to three times before Mathews’ assault. He said Mathews tried to get moved to a new cell to avoid the victim, even breaking his cell window on one occasion, but he was never moved.
“I’m torn on this case because, quite frankly, you don’t seem like the type of person that is outrageously violent,” the judge told Mathews. “But at the same time, you find yourself consistently in circumstances that result in violence.”
In addition to his sentence, Mathews is forbidden from possessing firearms and other related items, Zulfa said.
“I don’t take lightly my responsibility in imposing a sentence, especially a sentence that is going to be significant,” Zulfa said.
Zulfa, who said he and Mathews had a “cordial relationship” throughout the trial, admitted he had trouble separating his observations of Mathews from the defendant’s lengthy history of violence, both in and out of custody.
He said he truly hopes Mathews is able to one day get paroled, as Mathews didn’t seem like the type of person who should spend the rest of his life in prison.
“I wish you the very best of luck moving forward,” Zulfa said as Mathews nodded along in response. “And I do sincerely mean that.”
Childhood
Syville Morgan, Mathews’ mother, told Nexstar’s KGET that she was a single parent who had taken care of Mathews and his older sister, Tyenza James. Morgan was also a singer-songwriter in the past but was not in the spotlight as much.
The family of three lived in a duplex in an area of Los Angeles that Morgan described as clean, but “it was in the hood.”
“His childhood was kind of basic for a young man growing up in a single-parent home,” Morgan said.
That was until Rick James, performer of megahits “Super Freak” and “Give It to Me Baby,” re-entered the family’s lives.
Mathews was around 8 or possibly younger when James allegedly sent detectives to find them.
Afterward, James provided for the family, Morgan said. They moved to a home in Ontario, “a nice place way out in San Bernardino Valley.”
Morgan said she believes Mathews felt some pressure at the time, as his lifestyle had changed after James came onto the scene.
Still, Morgan said, Mathews had a good relationship with his father, which they maintained until the 56-year-old singer’s death in 2004.
‘Trouble came around’
As an adult, Mathews suffered from depression, Morgan said. He started using drugs and got into trouble, but he was never affiliated with gangs, according to Morgan.
“(Mathews) didn’t start trouble, but trouble came around him because he was the son of somebody famous,” Morgan said. “And I feel like he had to defend himself.”
Morgan also said her son is a talented artist and creative writer whose “hard work is impeccable.” Mathews has an outgoing, fun personality and he always made people laugh, according to Morgan.
“Regardless, he’s a man, and he’s trying to better his life,” Morgan said. “We’re looking for better things for him when he comes home, Lord willing.”