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UTAH STATE PRISON — A West Valley City man serving a 20-years-to-life prison sentence for beating his next-door neighbor to death with a baseball bat, is now accused of trying to kill his cellmate.
In May 2009, Martin Richard Vuksinick, Jr., now 20, entered the home of his neighbor, Kimberly Hain, intending to commit theft. But when he encountered the 33-year-old mother of two at home, he beat her to death.
Vuksinick is charged with stabbing Tristan Lamoreaux, his Utah State Prison cellmate, six times on May 25 with a sharpened 4-inch screw.
The incident occurred during recreation time in the prison day room. Lamoreaux later told investigators he could hear other inmates yelling, “keep stabbing, he is still breathing," according to charges filed in 3rd District Court Thursday.
At the time of the 2009 killing, Vuksinick had ingested cocaine before the murder. At his sentencing in January, Vuksinick expressed remorse, telling the judge, “I take full responsibility for using drugs and killing Kim Hain. … I have destroyed a family's life.”
After the prison attack, Lamoreaux was transported to Intermountain Medical Center where he spent six days recovering from six stab wounds and a punctured lung, the charges state.
Vuksinick was charged with attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of items prohibited in correctional facilities, a second-degree felony. An alternate charge of aggravated assault with injury by a prisoner, a first-degree felony, was also filed.
Lamoreaux is serving a prison sentence for the 2009 murder of his wife in their Cedar City apartment.
Email:lbrubaker@desnews.com
