A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Monday sentenced a man to 30 years to life in prison for strangling his cellmate five years ago at a Northern California prison.
Judge Deborah Lobre sentenced Jesus Lopez, 48, for the Feb. 24, 2020, death of Jose Garcia at California State Prison Sacramento , the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office announced in a news release.
On June 11, Lopez withdrew a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors said Lopez then pleaded to a charge of second-degree murder in Garcia's death.
Lopez was serving a 14-year prison sentence for a voluntary manslaughter conviction in February 2020 when he attacked Garcia, according to the District Attorney's Office.
He was housed in a double-bunk cell with Garcia at the prison, which is also known as New Folsom. Prosecutors said Garcia was asleep in the lower bunk when Lopez got on top of him and started to strangle him.
Lopez continued to strangle Garcia for a few minutes and then stopped to pace around the prison cell before he strangled Garcia for several more minutes, the DA's Office said.
Then, Lopez got the attention of a prison guard and told him that he thought he killed his cellmate, prosecutors said. Prison guards tried to revive Garcia, but he was pronounced dead. An autopsy declared his cause of his death was asphyxia by neck compression.
Prosecutors said Lopez told investigators that he "just flipped out" when he decided to kill his cellmate. Lopez later told authorities he heard voices in his head that told him Garcia was planning to hurt him, so he needed to kill him.
Lopez later admitted that he waited for the prison guard to pass their cell during the hourly rounds to make sure he would have enough time to kill Garcia before the guards could intervene, the DA's Office said.
Prosecutors said two psychiatrists evaluated Lopez and determined that the accused man was legally sane at the time he committed the murder.
On Monday afternoon, Lopez was in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail awaiting transfer to a prison to serve his sentence.
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